Tickle Me Pink
by CSIfreak89
Summary: A story about Chase and Cameron's lives going on and having each other to lean on during the problems that come up after Hunting, though it goes past that. Cameron deals with her dad dying as Chase wonders if he will ever have a chance to propose. Fluff.
1. Chapter 1

Tickle Me Pink Chapter 1

**A/N: My first House fic, I noticed that there weren't enough Chase/Cameron fics so I decided to write one. Feel free to tell me what you think, and where I should go with it. BTW -I own nothing.

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Why did he have to be right? Cameron had dismissed Chase when he had told her that unless the sex sucked, they'd inevitably do it again. So those weren't his exact words but she got the message just fine. Needless to say, Chase had been right. Now, almost three months later, with the threat of HIV cleared up Cameron was sitting on her couch wrapped in a silky robe while Chase lay asleep in her bed.

Cameron got up and crossed quietly to the kitchen and heated a mug of water in the microwave for tea. Eyes focused on the microwave she didn't see Chase walk into the room.

He squeezed her waist gently as a hello. To his surprise she squealed and jumped about a foot in the air.

"Sorry," Chase said, confused "I didn't mean to scare you."

Her face melted into a warm smile. "You didn't scare me, you just seem to have forgotten my ticklish spot," she said, almost embarrassed about it.

"Oh, so that's what that squeaking was, and here I thought it was your bed," he replied with amusement.

She just gave him a look and got her cup out of the microwave and dropped a tea bag into it. Both walking over to the couch and merely enjoying the other's company they sat silently for a few minutes.

"Chase?" Cameron asked as she began to fidget with his hand, something she did often out of boredom or nervousness.

"Yeh?"

"Where are we going with this? I mean, is this just meaningless sex, or…" She trailed off, hoping he knew what she was asking.

He had known this question was going to come up; it was inevitable, especially since their dating relationship started, well, when Cameron wasn't of her best judgment. "Cam, I care about you, a lot. I know we had a… different start, but I thought that was behind us." He lifted her jaw and brought her eyes to his.

"I know," she said with a sigh. She let out a yawn, rested her head against his chest and closed her eyes, satisfied at the moment with his answer.

Staring down at her, asleep in his lap, Chase finally realized just how much he cared for her. Moving a piece of her hair away from his face he couldn't help but think that he could stay this way with her for way longer than he ever liked to think about. Shaking the thought away he, too, closed his eyes and drifted off to sleep.

Going to work was no fun for either Chase or Cameron, though some days were good. Actually, it wasn't the work part that sucked, it was House. Everybody already knew about Chase and Cameron, but House being House always had a word to add, or some smart-alec comment about it.

They were all waiting at the conference table waiting for Chase. He and Cameron took their own cars, though they usually ended up back at her place anyway. As Chase walked in House felt the need to comment, "Why don't you two just save some gas and take the same car?"

Cameron glanced up at Chase and gave him a wry smile.

After a brief discussion, Cameron and Chase headed towards the clinic.

"What took you so long getting here?" She asked once they boarded the elevator.

"Traffic," he said as they began to move. He smiled mischievously and pressed the elevator's stop button.

Cameron raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

"This," he walked over to her and carefully placed a hand on her cheek and leaned in to kiss her. Though they were at work they let things get a little more intense. After a minute Chase moved his hands from her back to her waist. A kiss on the neck from Cameron caused him to reflexively squeeze her sides.

Again she screeched loudly and wriggled away. Chase covered his laugh with his hand.

"You have got to stop doing that," she said in mock frustration. "It's not funny Chase," she added, holding back her own laughter. It was funny to her that he thought it was so hilarious that she was ticklish.

"What's not funny? This?" he said and quickly squeezed the left side of her waist.

Once again she squirmed and let out a high-pitched squeak.

"Okay, last time, I swear," he said.

"Better be," she said and kissed him once more before deciding that they should get down to the clinic.

"Um- see you later." Chase said and got off the elevator.

After about 6 hours of clinic duty Cameron decided to call it a day and head home early for once. She pressed the button for the elevator and was tempted to take the stairs when she saw that House was on the elevator. Reluctantly, she got on.

"House," she said politely.

"Mrs. Chase," he said in a tone that could be mistaken for nice.

She gritted her teeth and tried to ignore him.

"So, when's the wedding?" House continued on his quest to annoy her.

"Why are you so bitter when other people are happy?" She blurted.

Before he could respond, the elevator doors opened and she stepped out.

Later on that night Cameron was trying to read a book without thinking about House. She heard the door open and knew it was Chase. "Good, you're home," she blurted out without thinking. _'Did I really just say home?'_ she thought and hoped he didn't notice.

No such luck. "Home, huh?" he asked, and silently admitted that he liked the sound of it. "What's wrong?" he asked upon noticing her facial expression.

"Rough day," she replied, vaguely.

"House?" he ventured a guess, he knew that she sought his approval, whether that was right or wrong, he didn't know.

"He's such a jerk, why can't he just be glad, or better yet just shut his mouth for once." By now she was getting worked up and pacing back and forth in her living room.

"Hey, calm down," he said and put his hand on her shoulders to make her stay still. "Why do you care so much about what he thinks?" he asked.

She said nothing, just stared at him and willed him to understand.

"Okay. Let's think about something else," he suggested and led her to the bed, he could tell she was exhausted.

They both climbed under the covers and Cameron rested her head in the crook of his arm. "Ever wonder what you'll be doing 5 years from now?" Chase absently asked her while twirling a strand of her hair around his finger.

"Yeh, all the time," she replied. "Every time I think about it I'm always doing something different though."

"Always saw you as the type to have a concrete plan," he replied.

"I gave up on my plan," she admitted.

Knowing that she probably didn't want him to press the issue further he went over what exactly she could mean. He knew that she had lost somebody; she tried to hide it, however unsuccessfully. Deciding not to mull over the topic Chase kissed her on the forehead and drifted off to sleep.

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**Review pleeease, you know you want to...**


	2. Chapter 2

Tickle Me Pink- Chapter 2

**A/N: I know I switch from calling her Cameron to Allison but sometimes it feels more correct to use her first name. Thanks for the reviews and keep them coming, I was actually surprised that people are really liking this. Ok, on with the story.

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"I'm Sorry Mrs. Lexing," Cameron said with a small smile that had nothing to do with being happy. Cameron wanted to comfort her, but knew there was nothing she could say that would suffice, so she quietly walked around the corner after briefly placing a comforting hand on the woman's shoulder.

The woman's daughter, Jenna, had just died after a final attempt to save her life. The poor girl had been in the hospital for a couple weeks undergoing many tests, in attempt to find a diagnosis. Cameron, with the help of the rest of the team, had come to the conclusion that the woman suffered had an advanced stage of an extremely vicious and hard to detect cancer.

Cameron had let herself get too close again, and she knew it. Feeling the pain of the girl's death like a friend should, she struggled to contain her emotions. Taking a deep breath she reminded herself that this was not the time to break down.

As Cameron rounded the corner she spotted House coming her way.

"What's up?" she asked

"Lunch," he said and didn't stop moving towards the elevator.

She didn't bother to tell him that they had already had lunch, because she knew he just wanted an excuse to leave. "Thought you would like to know, our patient died," she told him quietly as she walked alongside him.

House simply continued walking, without a word.

"You're not going to say _anything_?" she asked.

He turned to look at her, "Nope," he said and kept walking.

At this point she stopped and let him board the elevator, satisfied that he must feel something.

The rest of the day was spent with filling out the necessary evil that is paperwork. By the time she was done with her share and the portion she knew House had snuck into her pile she took off to find Chase.

With no luck in the break rooms, or where she often found him she asked a nurse if she had seen him.

"Uh, yeh, I think he left about a half an hour ago," the tall brunette informed her.

"Thanks," she said absently and figured he must be at her place.

She drove just a little above the speed limit the whole way home, replaying how they could have saved Jenna. Finding her efforts pointless she reminded herself that she couldn't get so emotionally attached to the patients they dealt with. True, they saved a great deal of patients, but she always seemed to get attachedto the patients who had the least chance of surviving. In a twisted way, it made sense to her why she felt this way. Sighing, she wiped her watery eyes, walked up to her door and was surprised to find it locked, meaning Chase wasn't there.

Trying not to feel disappointed, she reminded herself that he did have a place of his own and as much as she wished he did, he didn't live with her. Taking a deep breath, she dug her own key out and unlocked the door.

What she found couldn't have surprised her more. As she opened the door and looked up she found, on the counter, a huge glass vase filled with roses, a clear bottle of pink bubble bath and a card. Skeptical only for a moment, Cameron allowed her self to let her mind wander away from her thoughts about Jennaand smell the roses. Her curiosity getting the better of her she quickly set her bag down and grabbed the card. She sat on the edge of a nearby chair and read:

_Allison,_

_I know it's been a rough day, but I want you to relax and take a load off. I'll be back at 7 to pick you up, be ready. _

_Love, Chase_

Unable to stop a smile from forming, she looked around her apartment, gently placed the letter back on the counter and picked up the bottle of bubble bath. She couldn't even remember the last time she had taken a bath. _'Well,'_ she thought _'might as well go along with it.'_

She walked into the bathroom and drew the water for a bath. Testing the water with a toe, she gently slipped into the water and let herself relax, temporarily forgetting about her day, her thoughts about Chase's plan taking over.

'_What does he mean, "be ready", how am I supposed to get ready for something I don't even know about,' _she thought as she absently picked a clump of bubbles up into her palm and blew them back into the water. After pondering that for a few minutes, she decided to take his advice and relax. She gently closed her eyes and let the smell of the bath soothe her.

Awakened by her huge clock ringing from the living room, she glanced up at the small radio clock on the counter and was alarmed to find it 6 already. Quickly rinsing off and drying herself she wrapped a towel around her hair and tied her bathrobe around her waist.

'_What to wear, what to wear...'_ she thought as she rummaged through her closet for an all-purpose outfit, she had no idea what his plans were. She finally settled on a pair of dressy black pants, a crisp blue blouse and a silver and light blue scarf.

When she finished getting dressed, fixing her hair and make-up, Cameron sat on the foot of her bed and considered changing again. Fortunately, Chase saved her from doing so. The doorbell rang and her heart started beating faster. If she wasn't a doctor she would have swore her heart was going to beat right out of her chest, but she knew that wasn't possible.

'_Why are you so nervous, it's just Chase!' _she attempted to calm herself.

She placed a hand on the doorknob and took a slow breath before turning it.Feeling her uneasiness about what the night held slowly disapear,she looked up at his face and smiled. She realized that he always had a way to calm her down and make her feel at ease.

"So…where are we going?" She asked while they walked to his car.

"For a walk," Chase said cryptically and opened the car door for Cameron.

She rose onto her toes, leaned over the door and kissed him quickly. "If you say so," she said with a smile and climbed into the car.

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**A/N: Yeh, I know it is a cliffhanger, I try to avoid them generally but I felt that if I kept writing this would turn into a really long chapter, so this is basically a filler chapter, please don't hate me. Review, as always.**

**TBC, by the way.**


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N: Wow it took me long enough, but here's an update. My computer was taken away but I got it back so the next chapter could come faster, I just gotta, you know, write it. I got a suggestion to make a scene or two in the hospital and I'm pretty sure that will be in the next chapter or two. Okay, on with it.

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Chase took a right at a tall office building and stopped to let an elderly couple cross the road. He silently laughed as the man looped his arm in hers and, clutching her purse in his other hand, said something to her. The woman's white hair swayed as she laughed and looked at the man with eyes full of what could only be described as pure love.

Chase smiled as the couple finished crossing the road. He glanced over at Cameron who was smiling as well, eyes crossing the road with the couple.

"Sweet, huh?" He asked, letting her know that he too had watched the couple.

"They just look so…"

"In love?" he offered as they drove on.

"It takes real love for a man to carry his wife's purse," she noted. "So are you going to tell me where we're going?" Cameron asked a few minutes later.

"Relax, we're almost there," he said, purposely not telling her.

A short 15 minutes later Chase made one last turn, this time into one of his favorite parks in the area. _'This was the big surprise?'_ Cameron thought, but decided to give it a chance.

"Can you grab the blanket from the trunk?" He asked her once they were parked. Despite the unusually warm winter day he decided to bring thelarge andheavyblanket.

She walked around and grabbed a large blue fleece. As she lifted it out of the trunk a small rectangular box fell to the ground. She was about to tell Chase when he appeared next to her and smiled.

"Open it," He said as he leaned against the car and took the blanket from her.

Inside the box was a bracelet with alternating square rubies and sapphires. Chase gently reached over, took it out of the box and clasped it around her wrist. Cameron was speechless, she knew they were serious, but this just seemed to take that to a whole new level. It was so much more than just jewlrey and she knew it.She smiled as she realized that for the first time since her husband died she was ready to actually let go and love again. She'd been let down too many times and had always kept her guard up, especially towards House. But she was beyond that, way beyond.

She pulled herself out of her thoughts and glanced up at Chase, he said nothing just leaned forward and pulled her close to him. Cameron smiled and wiped her watery eyes with a free hand.

Chase saw the tear fall down her smooth cheek and her hand glide up to wipe it away, he hadn't been expecting this strong of a reaction, but took it as a good thing. The blanket getting heavy in his arms, he unfolded with a swift flick of his hand and wrapped it around both of them.

After a moment of thought, Cameron looked up at him and whispered audibly, more asa realization to herself than to Chase directly, "I love you."

She pulled away a little to look at his reaction. His eyes seemed to melt as he looked back at her and said, "You don't know how long I've been waiting to say the same thing." He leaned down and kissed her softly. "I love you too."

She was thrilled to hear it but when she glanced around them and realized they were still standing in the parking lot under the light of a tall streetlamp, she couldn't help a small chuckle from escaping.

"What?" Chase asked, confused.

"Sorry, I just remembered that we're still standing in a parking lot."

"Oh, right. Come on then, I brought you here to show you something a bit more significant than the parking lot," he said and took her hand, leading her across a patch of grass.

"And that would be, what exactly?" Cameron asked as they walked along a gravel path lit by street light type lamps.

"Just trust me," he said.

'_I'm working on it,'_ she thought and held his hand tighter as they walked a short distance to a wooden bridge.

Looking to her left she stood on the middle of the bridge and admired the view. The sky was tainted the slightest bit red from the sun going down, and a single lamppost glowed from just beyond the bridge. Trees bare for the winter surrounded edges of a trickling stream full of half melted ice from the day's heat.

Raising an eyebrow, she followed Chase's lead and sat down on a bench that was built into the structure of the bridge.

He re-arranged the blanket and said "I just wanted to bring you somewhere special." He brought her close to him and wrapped the blanket tighter.

"It's nice, really," she said sincerely and paused to listen to the rhythm of Chase's breathing and the soft ripple of the stream beneath them.

Cameron sighed aloud. Her day had been a crazy emotional roller coaster. She always took it hard when a patient died but she wasn't used to having someone there to actually care. Normally she just dealt with it somehow by herself, by either cleaning, blaring loud music or occasionally a bottle of wine.

"What's wrong?" Chase asked, nearly reading her mind.

"Nothing, just not used to all the special treatment I guess. I feel like I should be…I don't know," she trailed off and twined her fingers in his.

"Jenna?" he asked.

She hated thinking about it when he was taking so much effort to make her feel better and take her mind off it. "Yeh, sorry," she admitted.

"Do you remember the girl we saved that was obese, turned out she was taking diet pills and had that genetic disorder?" He asked her.

"Um, yeh," she said, not quite sure where he was going with it.

"My point is," he smiled, "that she will go on living, possibly closer to her mother because we saved her. You've got to think of the living, don't forget the dead, just look forward."

"Forward, huh?" she grinned, "I think I can do that." She looked up to him and cast away the mental video that appeared in her head of her and Chaserunning playfully witha small brunette around a lush green yard on a hot day. She knew it was wrong to make herself think that this could be her future. _'Hey'_ she thought,_ 'you never know.'_ The thought made her smile.

The next half hour was filled with Chase's explanation of why he chose this park and generally getting to know each other even better.

"We better go, it's getting cold," Chase said, feeling the cold night air begin to blow. He stood up and helped Cameron off the bench as well.

Having been sitting in the same position for a while she rolled her neck and stretched her arms above her head, arching her back.

Chase couldn't resist. He swiftly pinched her sides with his hands. She once again let out a high pitched "eeee" sound and nearly fell over. She lost her balance and fell back into Chase.

"I thought," she began through a smile after steadying herself, "I told you not to do that." She laughed and leaned closer to him then pulled away, purposely teasing him.

"Guess I forgot," He said innocently and laughed along with her.

"So where do you want to go for dinner?" He asked as they walked back to the car.

"Know what?" she asked with a sly suggestive smile. Chase raised a questioning eyebrow. "I'm not really hungry…" she turned her body and playfully kissed him. "…for food anyways," she finished the thought and laughed.

"Why, Allison," he spun her away from his bodyin a dance room like movement and brought her back to him in a fluid movement. "Are we trying to insinuate something?"

She smiled back and felt his pace quicken.

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"HEY!" Cameron yelled toward the bed, while spraying perfume on her neck. No response. He was the hardest person to wake up that she had ever met. Most mornings she just set the alarm clock really close to his ears.

'_Fine'_ she thought,_ 'be that way.'_ Cameron picked up a pillow that had clearly been in their way last night off the floor and threw it with a bit of force at a sleeping Chase.

Chase simply moved the pillow off his face by rolling over, meanwhile mumbling something along the lines of "yeh, yeh I'll see…"

Cameron laughed, he rarely talked in his sleep but when it did it never made much sense. Her smile fading, she slipped on her watch and assured herself that she still had enough time to wake him up before she had to leave.

Cameron made her way over to the bed and laid down close to him.

"Chase, it's time for work," she whispered in his ear. She laid a trail of kisses from his chest, up his neck and stopped at his mouth.

His eyes opened and she moved a little away from his face. "Good morning." She smiled and climbed off the bed. "You've _got_ to do something about this whole deep sleep thing," she warned him.

"Keep waking me up like that and we won't have a problem," he said, getting off the bed, slipping on a pair of pants and wrapping his arms around her waist from the back. He rested his head on her shoulder and sighed.

She pulled away and smiled. "Hey, I'm going to head in early for an appointment, 'kay?"

"Mmm, okay, bye," he said and smiled after her as she walked out through the spacey living room.

**TBC- Review please.**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: Feel free to be mad at me for taking so long to update, there's no excuse execept a nasty case of writter's block. Anyway, enjoy th chapter and please review.

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"That's not even possible," Chase said to Cameron, inadvertently sounding a bit rude. "Symptoms would have shown long before." He glanced around the table to House, Cameron and Foreman, Foreman nodding his agreement.

House, suddenly struck with an idea that he was probably going to make them guess at, pushed back his chair and walked to the white board. While Foreman's eyes were following House, Cameron caught Chase's glance. She looked at him as if to ask 'what the hell was that for?'

He shrugged. Cameron glared back at him for a second and stuck her tongue out at him. Unable to keep straight faces they both smiled and Chase suppressed a laugh.

"Ahem," House coughed to gain their attention. "Let's focus on the dying person," he added with a sarcastic smile.

Their smiles faded as they turned to the board and continued to theorize. "Fever, seizures, irritability," House listed off.

"Not to mention she collapsed before she came here," Foreman added.

They went on listing symptoms and possible conditions but found nothing to fully explain all the symptoms. House settled on having Cameron perform a Lumbar Puncture and Chase running more tests to make sure the patient hadn't been lying about not doing drugs.

"And I'm going to do what?" Foreman asked. He really hated that House was back as boss, he had so enjoyed bossing him around, even if House never listened anyway.

"_You_ have clinic duty to attend to," House said and left the room after Cameron and Chase.

"What!" Foreman said. He knew he already put his time in for this week, but House was gone. _'It's just his twisted idea of revenge because I was _his_ boss for a change,'_ Foreman thought and went to find Cuddy about her offer to make his boss position last a little longer.

Meanwhile Cameron and Chase were both in a lab running tests and waiting for results.

"So you think she was telling the truth about not taking anything?" Chase asked, knowing this was a touchy subject.

"She was around it, probably got sucked in," Cameron replied, and she knew they weren't talking about the patient anymore.

"Is that what happened?" Chase asked, because they hadn't really talked about it seriously since she had taken the drugs.

Cameron slid her glasses down from her hair and made adjustments to the equipment then took her glasses off and set them on the counter. She turned to him. "I guess," she said with a sense of shame that came with bringing forth the memory she tried to suppress.

He looked out the glass walls of the lab and seeing nobody around he wheeled his chair over to her and took her hands in his.

"Just wanted to make sure it wasn't more than that," he said, trying to read her expression as thoughts of depression and other such things entered his mind. He wondered to himself why he hadn't talked to her about this before.

"I'm fine," she said and, seeing his not fully convinced expression she added, "Really."

An alarm beeped from behind them, alerting them that the results were ready. Chase turned and read the paper the printer had spit out. His mouth twitched into a tight circle.

"What?" she asked, walking over.

"Nothing but a trace of methamphetamines, probably from a couple days ago."

She'd had a feeling it was going to be meth, she couldn't escape that easy. She switched her focus from personal to professional. "Could it have been laced with anything?" she wondered out loud.

"No traces of anything else, so I doubt it," Chase replied.

They waited a while longer in silence and headed to House's office with the rest of the test results.

"We found," Chase began.

House, without looking up, shushed him and held up an index finger.

Chase raised an eyebrow and glanced over at Cameron, who rolled her eyes.

A few seconds later House snapped his head up, put his feet back on the floor and said, "Next time don't bother me when I'm trying to beat the last level, do you _know_ how long it took me to get there?" He placed his silver gameboy on the top of his desk.

"Sure," Chase said, not really caring. "Anyway, the patient lied about not doing meth."

House rudely shot Cameron a look and she glared back at him and hated that he knew. He was basically addicted to his pain pills so he couldn't say anything, but she had the feeling he was just waiting for the opportunity. She wasn't even sure how he'd found out that she had done meth more then once. She had been less obvious about it, not that she was particularly proud that she had given in to it.

House and Chase continued talkingbut she waslost in her thoughts.

'_I should have told him the truth,'_ she thought as she looked at Chase and was vaguely aware of the discussion taking place around her.

She was reluctant to tell him thatshe hadn't done meth just once because they were at a good place and she knew things were going well, she had no desire to ruin that. _'Plus,'_ she told herself, _'It's not like it's out of control.' _She thought about their night at the park the other week and was aware of the small weight of the bracelet on her wrist.

She was brought back to reality by Chase's hand on her bare arm. She blinked herself out of her thoughts and looked over at him. He was facing the door and giving her a 'let's go' glare.

She turned quickly and followed him out.

"Something wrong?" he stopped to ask her once they were out of House's earshot. He sounded worried and at the same time disappointed in her unprofessional lack of focus.

"No, just tired," she replied, and it was true.

"We have been here for a while," he said and glanced at his watch. "She's been stable all day," he said, referring to their patient. "We could probably go home and catch some sleep," he said and placed a hand on the small of her back as the walked out, ignoring stares from passing nurses.

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"House said that she probably has a genetic disorder that may have interacted badly with the drugs," Chases recapped the conversation while he drove toward her apartment.

Silence.

Chase glanced over to the passenger side of the car. He had to smile.

Cameron had her elbow propped against the door and her fingers entangled in her long brownhair while her hand supported her head. She breathed slightly louder than normal as she slept.

She was still sleeping when he parked close to the stairs of her apartment a short 20 minutes later.

'_Don't drop her, don't drop her…'_ he thought as he carried her up the steep stairs and somehow managed to open the door with his key.

He carried her down the dark hallway without bothering to find the light switch, and cursed when he stubbed his toe on the doorframe.

Chase managed to get her coat and shoes off and get her into the bed without her waking up. He kissed her on the forehead and walked into the bathroom.

He pulled his shirt off and tossed it in the general direction of the hamper. Opening the cabinet above the sink, hegot out the toothpaste he had made Cameron switch to. He smiled tiredly as he remembered the ridiculous argument they'd had over the toothpaste one night when they were both on edge. They'd ended up laughing about how stupid it was and he had even snuck a tube of it in her purse a few days after.

"Shit," he muttered as he knocked a bottle of something behind the dark wood cabinet next to the sink.

He bent over to reach behind the cabinet and grabbed the bottle,feeling something else as his hand passed over something that crinkled beneath his hand.

His expression fell as he looked at the small baggie and didn't have to look twice to know what it was. Disappointment showed in his eyes as he looked through the doorway to Cameron asleep on the bed.

'_So much for it being a one time thing,'_ he thought as he placed the meth on the edge of the sink.

**TBC (remember to review)**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: I'm sorry that I'm so neglectant of this story. Let me know if they are getting OOC or anything. Review!**

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Cameron sighed and arched her back to stretch out her stiff muscles. She rubbed her eyes and felt the morning sun warm her face through the window. She looked down to see that she was still in her powder blue blouse and pants from the day before.

She laughed_ 'How out of it was I?' _she thought as she got out of the bed, careful not to wake Chase.

She picked out a fresh set of clothes and feeling in a good mood, she kissed Chase's forehead and made her way to the bathroom. She dropped the clothes on the step stool and began to pull the hair tie out of her tangled hair.

Mid-pull she stopped as she turned and saw the familiar bag or meth on the counter. She stared at it, unmoving, refusing to believe what she already knew; he'd found it. Her stomach tightened and a shiver passed through her body.

She knew she should have turned to him after the second time she'd done meth but she only did it when he wasn't there and didn't see the need to tell him and risk loosing him. She should have told him, she knew. She'd seen too many users pass through the hospital, overdoses, and dealers. They were all people she thought she could never have anything in common with. Yet there she was, a secret occasional user staring at her little stash.

She undressed and looked back at her pitiful reflection in the small mirror on the cabinet. She'd never disliked her actions, and possibly herself quite this much.

She managed to pull herself together and get in the shower. As she always did, she let the tears fall where no one could see as she spun out all the what-if's.

'_What if he leaves?'_ she thought as she figured this was likely to happen.

The thought frightened her as she realized how accustomed she'd become to having him there. He was there when she needed him and she refused to think of how she'd react if he really left her.

She mulled that over as she stood there under the hot water and watched the soap suds swirl down the drain. She felt like the control she used to have on her life was going down the drain as well. She shed the last of her tears and shut the water off.

Cameron tapped the pen on the counter as she stared blankly at the white piece of paper.

She wasn't going to work; she couldn't handle other people's pain of any kind.

**_Chase,_** she scrawled.

'_What am I supposed to write?'_ she asked herself. _'Sorry, but I gotta go somewhere. No, too rude, he deserves more than that. More than me.'_

She couldn't keep her frantic thoughts in order in her head, let alone on paper so she crumpled the sheet and threw it in the garbage.

Her logic and reasoning told her to stay, but her feelings were screaming at her to run as far as she could and hide. Reasoning was out the window as she left the apartment and climbed into her car.

It wasn't like her to up and leave when she faced a problem but the problem she couldn't fix with a medical textbook, a good cry or a cup of hot tea. It was bigger than that. It was different when it involved someone she truly cared about and loved.

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Chase woke to a half empty bed and was instantly reminded of what he had found the night before. 

He felt so betrayed and angry, not particularly angry at Cameron, just angry in general. Angry that she felt she couldn't have come to him, angry at the patient that initially got her into it, and mostly angry at himself for not being able to help her.

Overwhelmed by all his thoughts and feelings Chase decided to do the one thing that had a chance of at least distracting him: work.

"You're late," Foreman said as Chase walked into the conference room.

Chase just shot him an _I really don't care_ look and sat down at the table.

"Where's Cameron?" House asked in a tone that Chase took as a suggestion that House already knew why she wasn't there, though he really couldn't have known.

"How should I know?" Chase said, beginning to get pissed at their interrogation of him.

"Hmm, trouble in paradise. Interesting," House added.

"Shut up," Chase muttered.

Work went by slowly, and four long hours after he had arrived he shut the book he was supposed to be looking for something in, though he didn't really remember what it was, and sighed. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop worrying about Cameron. Was she okay? Was she doing meth right now? Where was she? The questions wouldn't stop.

He couldn't possibly be very useful to anybody as long as he didn't know where she was. And that's basically what he told Foreman as he made his way out of the hospital.

He didn't know exactly where he was driving to, but he decided that he couldn't just go home and wait for her.

Chase drove around town for nearly an hour, occasionally stopping at stores or fast food places they had gone to together. Having no luck he gave up and turned around in a nearby parking lot and headed in the general direction of Cameron's apartment, not knowing if he should just go to his instead.

He was just thinking about moving all his stuff out and not renting that apartment anymore the other day because he never used it and he only went there to pick up his bills, which he still hadn't re-directed to Cameron's apartment.

He pushed thoughts of their progressing relationship out of his head and concentrated on driving. The large wooden sign to his favorite park drew his attention and he made a split second decision to pull in, making his tires screech back at him in protest of the sharp turn. His stomach tightened as he realized this was where she had first told him that she loved him.

He was shocked to see Cameron's royal blue 'chick car', as he once called it, sitting in the parking lot a few spaces away.

He got out of his car and walked, almost in a run to the spot where they had come. He wasn't surprised to see her sitting on the bridge at the bench staring blankly out to the river, arms folded across her waist.

"Cameron?" he said, barely audible above the trickle of the river.

Nevertheless she heard it and turned to him, regret clear in her eyes. She opened her mouth to say something but couldn't decide what she could possibly say.

He ran his hand through his hair, a motion that she associated with him being angry and looking for words that wouldn't be too harsh.

"How could you do this?" He asked, anger creeping into his smooth voice.

"I tried Chase, I tried," Cameron said and looked away from his gaze.

"Tried to what? Tried to hide this from me? Tried to go behind my back? What?" Chase felt all the anger build up inside of him as his voice got increasingly louder.

"I didn't mean it to end like this" she said, not as an answer to him but as a thought that had been with her all day.

"End?" he asked as his anger faded back to the worry that he'd felt all day. "I'm not leaving you," he stated firmly, catching on to what she was talking about.

"Why? I fucked everything up. I kept this from you, I lied," she went on with the list, mumbling.

"Don't you get it?" he asked her rhetorically. "I love you, that's not going to change. I just hate it that you felt you couldn't havecome to me."

She couldn't say anything to that because she knew she should have gone to him, she wasn't going to argue that.

Cameron finally turned to him and looked him in the eyes, semi relieved that he wasn't going to leave.

He sat down next to her. "How do I help you?" he asked, turning the conversation to the drugs.

"You already did," she told him.

"That's what I'm not sure about," he said. "I have to know that you are going to stop."

"Just believe me; I don't want to risk loosing you just for something as stupid as this."

"Okay," he whispered, and smoothed the hair on her shoulders. "Let's go." He got up off the bench.

"I just have to stay a little longer," she said to him. She wanted to sort some more things out before she went back.

"You sure?" he said

"Yeh."

"Promise you'll come home?" he asked, clearly still worried.

She smiled weekly, "I will."

He handed her his coat. "It's getting cold," he explained as she took it from his outstretched hand.

He stepped closer to her and kissed her forehead then turned to leave as Cameron sat back down, wrapping his coat around her.

**TBC**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N: yeh, it's late, I know and I apologize. please review and tell me anything you think i should try to fix. thanks.

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"Hey," Cameron said as she boarded the elevator. "I didn't hear you leave this morning," she told Chase.

He smiled and kissed her good morning as he inhaled the light scent of her body wash and shampoo that was uniquely hers. "I had something to take care of," he vaguely explained.

"You're so cute when you're trying to hide something from me," she said with a smile to let him know that she trusted him with whatever he was keeping.

They were silent as they stood closely while the elevator made its way up. They had both noticed that they had become a lot more comfortable with each other over the past couple weeks. Initially after their confrontation at the park he had been reluctant to go back to what they had before, but Chase knew he needed to help Cameron, not just for her, but also for himself. He loved her too much to let go so quickly.

Cameron had also finally let her guard down. Now that he knew so much about her she had nothing left to hide. It was the little changes that made Chase realize how lucky he was. He loved how she would occasionally wear one of his t-shirts around the house. She would come out of the shower, hair wet, wearing one of his shirts. It drove him absolutely crazy.

In the past he probably would have considered it an invasion of privacy, but with Cameron he just couldn't bring himself to care that much.

Now, nearly two weeks later they were both on track again, though it seemed like so much longer than two weeks to Cameron. More than two weeks since she'd come back to the apartment, strode in and plucked the meth off the sink and dumped every last bit of it in the toilet. Chase had come in and held her as she flushed it down. This showed her just how much he was going to be there for her.

And he was, every step of the way. She felt like they had gotten to know each other more in the last two weeks than they had since they first slept together.

The silence between them was filled with wordless understanding and love, not to say that they still didn't playfully bicker.

The elevator stopped and they both got off, Chase holding the doors open for a couple of nurses. They looked up at him, smiled, blushed and got on the elevator giggling to themselves.

Cameron couldn't hide the amusement in her smile.

"What?" Chase asked, clearly oblivious.

"Dr. Chase;" Cameron imitated the nurses, "chivalrous _and_ sexy," she said in a girly voice.

"And taken," he added, placing his hand on the small of her back and lightly kissing her on the cheek.

She smiled up at him, "House suckered me into clinic this morning, so I'll see you at lunch?" she posed this as a question.

He looked like he wished he could just kill House and get it over with, but instead of saying anything he just smiled and told her that he would see her for lunch later.

* * *

"Foreman," Chase said as a 'good morning' while he walked to the coffee maker, more out of habit than actual need for coffee.

Foreman looked up from the table. "Almost didn't recognize you without the ball and chain," he commented because it was kind of rare for him to come in in the morning without Cameron.

"She's got clinic," Chase said, ignoring the 'ball and chain' remark. He was in too good of a mood to be bothered.

He'd been planning this surprise for a little while and was a little disappointed that she could tell he was hiding something. As long as she didn't find out exactly what it was, he was golden. The thought left a smile on his face as he turned back to Foreman.

* * *

"Why are you here!" Cameron spoke loudly; as if the elderly woman would suddenly understand her if she repeated the question for a fifth time.

No luck. Cameron was pretty sure the woman was Russian or Italian, but either way she clearly didn't speak any English.

"Okay, have it your way," Cameron said and pulled out the odoscope from her white lab jacket. She stepped closer to the woman and turned the light to her odoscope on.

The plump woman turned as Cameron got closer to her ear and smacked her hand as if she were a child being punished for misbehaving.

Cameron jumped backwards and sighed, this was getting nowhere. She threw her hands up in the air and turned to leave.

She was almost out the door when a faint cough followed by a sneeze caused her to turn around.

"Of course you have a cold, it couldn't havebeen anything interesting," she muttered to herself. Clinic had been boring, she'd hoped a patient would come in with more than a cold or a sore throat.

She held up a pointer finger tot ell the woman she'd be right back.

Cameron started to leave the room and nearly got knocked over by a small boy with curly black hair dashing into the room. She turned to see the young boy yelling frantically, in English nonetheless, to the woman sitting innocently on the examining table, arms folded in her lap.

"How could you grandma, you are supposed to stay with Kelly," the boy rampaged, "you're not sick!"

The woman slowly hopped down from the table. "Okay dear," she said and took the boy's hand.

"You'll have to excuse her doctor," he said to a wide-eyed Cameron, "she's a little delusional sometimes." He walked off, grandmother in tow, leaving Cameron in the doorway, still a little perplexed.

"Okay," she said to herself. "Time for lunch." She dropped her clipboard off at the nurse's station and took off to find Chase.

She found him when she turned a corner into a secluded hallway. Cameron quickened her pace and, standing on her toes, enveloped Chase in a hug.

"I am so glad to see you," she said into his ear.

"Didn't know lunch was so exiting," Chase replied, pulling back a little to look at her.

"People in this hospital are so frustrating," she told him as they walked out of the hospital.

"That basically sums up my morning," he agreed.

"House?" she ventured a guess.

"We were trying to make a diagnoses and he insisted on leaving his portable TV on so he wouldn't miss anything. It was on all morning, couldn't tell him anything. He doesn't even know I'm gone." He smiled at the last part.

"Sneaky," she replied as they sat down at a marble table outside their favorite café, that happened to be right outside the hospital.

"So, when are you going to stop renting that apartment?" she asked him once they sat down.

He smiled. "It's storing a lot, what do you want me to do with all my stuff?"

"Good question," she started before she was interrupted by her phone. "Hang on," she told Chase as she turned and flipped her phone open.

"Hello?" She answered.

"Is this Allison Cameron?" A man asked her.

"Yeh…"

"This is Dr. Carlson, from the University Hospital in Pennsylvania; we have your father in the ICU. I'm sorry to call you but you're the only listed contact for Mr. Cameron."

She glanced at Chase, who was looking concerned as she turned her attention back to the call.

"What happened?" she simply asked.

"He was in an accident," he began to explain. She knew the tone well enough to know when she was being let down easy.

"Just be straight with me, how bad is his condition?"

He went on to tell her what he knew, and that her father's condition wasn't likely to improve. She flipped the phone shut and sighed.

What's going on?" Chase asked, about to explode if he didn't find out what was wrong.

"It's my dad," she said quietly. "He fell asleep at the wheel."

"You going to be okay?" he asked when he saw her expression.

"Uh, yeh. Looks like I'm going on a vacation," she said with a forced laugh. She set her phone down on the table and looked up at Chase. "Just what I need."

He moved his chair closer and took her hand. "I'm coming with you," he said and left no room for argument.

She nodded, showing that she was glad he would come with her and be there when she knew she would need him.

**Review. TBC!**


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N: Wow, this is like the earliest I've updated, yay. Well I really need reviews on this one to know how you think it's going and basically anything, including if you think I should end this story soon. thanks.****

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She didn't know how they had convinced Cuddy to let them both take four days off, but there they were, throwing luggage into the trunk and getting ready to leave.

"Is that everything?" Chase asked before he slammed the trunk shut.

She thought for a moment. "One more thing," she said and bolted up the stairs into her apartment.

She came back a minute later with a case of CD's and a big sweatshirt. "For the ride," she explained. "You do know where you're going right?" she wondered as they got in the car and Chase started the engine.

"Nope," he admitted. "That's why you're navigation," he smiled.

"That's a bit dangerous, you know?" she said.

He smiled briefly, but turned serious as he asked her, "How are you holding up?"

"I'm fine," she told him. "I wasn't too close with my dad," she said as emotion crept into her voice.

"How come?" he pushed, though he knew she might not want to elaborate, they hadn't really talked too much about her family.

"He and my mom didn't exactly get along, it's complicated," she told him.

She put her chair back a bit and took Chase's free hand. "I don't hate him I just resent the way he turned me against my mom," she said, staring out the windshield. "Turn left."

"You want to talk about it?" he asked, though he desperately wanted to know if she was still holding on to anything from the past.

"My parents never got along, they just put on this big show for everybody," she continued. "The show ended when they walked through the front door. They were so obsessed with their problems." She sighed as images of herself as a child, sitting alone in her room trying to block out whatever petty argument her parents flooded into her mind.

"They neglected you?" he asked, suddenly very glad he'd come with her.

"That's not how I would classify it," she said, searching for the right description. "It's more like they were normal goodparents but they chose to involve me in their fights."

"How'd you take it?" he asked.

"I hated being out in the middle, but things got a lot better once they finally split up," she continued to explain. "I was so happy they divorced. People would tell me 'oh I'm sorry to hear about your parents' but I was ecstatic."

"Did you ever forgive them?" he wondered as they continued driving down the seeminglyendless highway.

"Time goes on," she said. "I keep the past where it belongs."

He nodded with understanding and truly believed she was past it. "I think your phone's ringing," he told her.

She dug for her purse and found her phone and flipped it open.

"Cameron," she said into the phone.

"So you drove to the next state on my time, just to save Daddy?" House said without any introduction.

"I don't care, fire me if you want, but I have to do this," she boldly said.

"Fire you? Whatever gave you that idea? You seem to have some sort of paranoia complex. Might want to get that checked out."

She rolled her eyes, as if House could see her. "I'll be back in a few days. Bye House," she said and hung up, not giving him a chance to say anything more.

"He is so ridiculous," she said.

"Yep," Chase agreed.

* * *

An hour passed with little small talk as they drove past gas stations, hotels, and small restaurants. 

"Hey Al?" Chase said.

No response. He glanced over to see her asleep with her head resting on her hand.

"Allison," he said again. He lightly shook her shoulder to make her wake up.

She sat up and opened her eyes. "What? I was trying to sleep," she said with mock sternness. "I was kidding!" she said when he shot her a defensive look. "Are we there yet?" she asked, letting out a yawn while stretching her arms as much as she could in the small car.

"No." He laughed at how girly she looked with her wild curls, slightly disarrayed from the ride, and tired expression. "You're beautiful, you know?" he said and closed the distance between them with a kiss.

She smiled and looked around to see why did they weren't moving.

"I needed some food, want anything?"

"Yeh," she said as she remembered how little she'd actually eaten that day.

"Okay, what do you want?" he said and dug for his wallet.

She thought for a moment. "I'll just come."

"Okay," he said and got out of the car.

He turned around when he realized she wasn't behind him. "You coming?" he asked through the open car door.

"Yeh, as soon as I can find my shoes," she told him as she searched through the things in the passenger side.

A minute later she gave up, throwing her hands in the air. "I can't find them, and I'm not going to risk going in there barefoot."

"Yeh, I wouldn't recommend that," he said, a smile playing on his lips as he walked closer to her.

"What are you doing?" she asked with an eyebrow arched.

He said nothing just turned his back to her and knelt in front of her. "Just get on my back," he offered as a solution to her not having shoes.

She smiled and rolled her eyes at the fact that she didn't care how funny they might look.

She carefully wrapped her legs around his waist and successfully got onto his back, purse in hand.

She was almost having enough fun to forget why they were making this trip. The thought made her feel a little guilty as she pushed it away and told herself that the less she thought about it, the better.

She sighed as she realized how grateful she was to have him. To express this she leaned forward and kissed his neck as they approached the building.

Chase laughed. "Keep doing that and I might just drop you."

She laughed lightly. "I'll keep that in mind, no more kissing."

The ring of her phone interrupted the moment as she skillfully held on to Chase and answered the call at the same time.

"Cameron," she said with a trace of laughter.

"Enjoying yourself? You leave me here with Foreman while you're off with lover boy having fun?" House lashed off.

"Goodbye House," she said and closed the phone, placing it back in her purse.

They managed to get into the rest stop building andget a couple subs and drinks from a sub shop in the rest stop.

"Hurry," Cameron laughed into his ear as she struggled to carry everything and not fall.

Chase found a nearby table and set her down gently just as she was loosing her balance.

"Hmm, strong," she said and was once again interrupted by her phone. She looked at the caller ID first this time."If he calls me one more time I'm going to explode," she said and instead of answering it she was struck with a better idea. "You know what, I'm not even going to give him a chance," she told Chase and shut her phone off. "Shut yours off too so he can't play his little games."

He smiled and shut his cell off too.

"We're almost there," he said a minute later between bites of his turkey sub.

She looked out a nearby window and sighed. "In a way I just want to turn around now, avoid him and just go on with life."

He looked back at her, listening, but not completely sure what to say.

"But it's my dad," she said, reasoning with herself. "I owe it to him to be there."

"It's better to be there now than to regret not being there when it's too late," Chase spoke from experience.

"Your dad?" she asked though she knew that's what he was referring to.

"Yeh," he said. "I justcan't shake the feeling that I should have been there."

"You didn't know, there was no way you could have," she reassured him.

He gave a weak smile and changed the subject, indicating to her that he didn't want to mull over it anymore than he already had. "What exit do we need?"

"Twenty one," she answered.

They finished eating, Chase carried her to the car and they spent the remaining half hour of the trip debating peacefully over new medical practices that Chase had read about recently.

"I don't care, they still have ethical values to protect," Cameron said. "That's our hotel!" she said quickly pointing to a nice hotel nearly hidden by a large supermarket and trees.

Chase swerved quickly into the parking lot and pulled into a parking space.

"Sorry about that," he said and shut off the engine. "Let's dump off all this stuff and we'll head to the hospital," he said as he grabbed some luggage out of the trunk.

They checked in, found the room and unpacked quickly. A little over a half an hour later they were walking into the hospital.

"I'm looking for David Cameron's room," she told the nurse at the front desk.

"You family?" the nurse asked in the same tone Cameron was sure she used every time she asked people that.

"He's my father," she responded.

"Room 201," the nurse read from a screen and directed them to the room.

Cameron looked at Chase and hesitantly started down the hallway. He took her hand and gave it a reassuring squeeze.

She knew she should have expected what she saw, but it was still a shock to her. There he was, lying on a hospital bed under light blue sheets with a heart monitor beeping from his side.

She wasn't sure how long she sat in the chair beside his bed leaning on Chase's shoulder, but it had to have been at least an hour.

"You must be Ms. Cameron," she heard somebody say. She glanced over to see a doctor in a white lab coat carrying a clipboard.

"Yes," she said, not bothering to correct him that it was Dr. Cameron. She was too out of it to care.

"Well he's not awake right nowbecause ofall the pain medications, but you can come back tomorrow and he should be awake," he informed her.

She nodded slightly but didn't make an effort to move.

Chase glanced up and the doctor. The doctor caught his silent message and left the room.

"Hey hon," Chase said quietly while running his fingers through her hair soothingly. "We can come back tomorrow; you need to get some sleep."

"Let's go," she said almost silently and got up.

They got back to the hotel around 8. Cameron set her purse on the small coffee table and flicked a light on as she made her way to the bed and sat down. Chase stood in front of her and placed his hands on her shoulders.

"How are you?" he asked.

"Fine," she replied absently.

"Don't lie," he said in a non-accusatory tone.

"I really don't know," she said and stood up to change out of her clothes.

She crawled onto the bed and under the flowered comforter. Chase followed her.

"Thanks," she said as she laid her head on his chest.

"You've got the hard part in all this," he replied, planting a kiss on the top of her head.

They got comfortable and drifted off to sleep, Cameron on her stomach with an arm over Chase's middle, keeping him close.

**TBC. **


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N: all I can really say is sorry. I know it is later than usual and I am sorry. please review anyways.**

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Cameron felt a lot better the next morning as she and Chase walked into the hospital. They had both slept in, as much as Cameron could, then they took a warm shower, and had even taken advantage of the spring day by taking a walk through the hospital's courtyard while eating breakfast.

"What if he gets worse?" she asked Chase as they walked in the sliding glass doors to the hospital lobby.

"He is critical," he reminded her lightly.

"Yeh, I know. I just wish that they would tell me what is wrong, the fact that he is out from pain medication doesn't tell me much," she ranted as they made their way to her father's room.

He gently touched her shoulder and smiled, both of them stopping outside of her father's room. "Try not to think of him as a patient," he said, though he was thinking the same thing as her.

She said nothing just shot him a 'not going to happen' look and walked into Room 201.

This time a different doctor was there to talk to Cameron.

"Dr. Carlson," the doctor introduced himself and Cameron recognized the name as the doctor she talked on the phone with.

She shook his hand and wasted no time in asking, "Why isn't he awake? I was told that he was out due to pain medication."

"There's been a slight change in his condition," Dr. Carlson told her gently in a tone that told her the change was anything but slight.

She fixed her gaze on him. "Meaning what, exactly?" she asked as she felt her lightened mood slip away.

"The injury that he sustained during the accident was more severe than we initially thought. We ran several tests and the head trauma seems to have caused extensive damage to the thinking and life support centers of his brain…" he trailed off when he realized that her attention was no longer on him.

She looked again over to her dad. Then she spotted the feeding tube that had been inserted since last night. "He's in a coma," Cameron finished for Dr. Carlson.

"He's been deeply unresponsive to all tests," he confirmed Cameron's statement. Deciding there was nothing more that he could say at the moment, he told her that they still had hopes of him pulling out of the coma and left the room.

"He's going to die," Cameron said quietly as she stared at all the equipment that was keeping her father alive.

"Don't think that way," Chase told her. "We've seen people wake up out of comas before."

"Yeh, we have also seen them become vegetables."

* * *

Cameron sighed. She sometimes wished she didn't know all that she did, that way she could be one of those people who at this point were still filled with hope. But she wasn't. And she knew from his condition that he was likely to be in a persistent vegetative state, even if he wasn't classified as such yet. She felt the energy drain out of her as she stood next to Chase, watching a machine keep her dad alive. 

She remembered something her dad told her on the day he moved out. _"I know I screwed up, and I'm sorry. I hope you don't suffer because of it. I love you." _She had instantly rejected this, yelling that if he really cared he would have left a long time before then. The argument had stuck with her longer than she cared to admit. It was an accurate representation of their relationship. Not to say that they didn't have great times together, but they were overshadowed in her mind by the fights and silent treatments.

"Chase," she whispered almost inaudibly.

"Yeh?" he said.

She didn't have anything to say, it had simply been a reflex for her to say his name. Cameron looked away from her dad and up at Chase.

"We should go," Chase said, noticing the weary look in her eyes.

"No, I have to stay with him," she said with a voice that betrayed her weakness.

Chase saw the walls she put up for everyone else fall as he pulled her to him and wrapped her in a tight hug.

"You can't do that to yourself; you can't wait by his side and wait for him to wake up. I won't let you," he said into her ear in a gentle tone. He had seen too many people wait and wait next to a loved one, their hope deteriorating with each day. He didn't want Cameron to put herself through that.

"I can't desert him," she reasoned.

"We're 20 minutes away," he reminded her.

After a few more minutes she reluctantly agreed to go, just for a little.

They got inside the car and pulled away from the hospital, creating a pang of guilt inside Cameron.

As if he sensed it, Chase placed his hand over hers and said, "It's okay, we're coming back."

"Robert, what if something happens?" Cameron asked a moment later.

"The doctors have your number."

"No, that's not what I mean." She paused as she searched for a better way to say what she was trying to say. "I never had a chance to fix things with him," she told him and knew that he, of all people, would understand this.

"Don't make yourself feel responsible for his mistakes," he told her, though he held onto his dad's mistakes for a long time after he died. He always found a way to blame himself for not knowing his dad was sick.

Truthfully he knew that had his dad survived he probably wouldn't have tried to make everything better. When somebody dies it changes everything, Chase figured, even for people not close to the person who dies.

"He's going to go into a persistent vegetative state, with the severity of his head wound there's almost no way he can pull out of a coma," she said as if they were back in New Jersey staring at the dry-erase board with symptoms of a complete stranger written all over it.

He wasn't going to tell her that she was wrong.

"Do you know if he has a living will?" Chase hesitated in asking, unsure whether or not he should bring it up.

"I don't know. Most people don't. I do, but most people don't think that it will ever be them hooked up to a respirator, living off machines." She turned quiet and studied the small raindrops that were beginning to fall and hit the windshield. She tried to push thoughts out of her head by watching the slow drops slide down the windshield and catch other drops in their path.

Her concentration on the rain was interrupted by Chase.

"Hun?" Chase said when he realized that he didn't know where they were headed. "Do you want to go back to the hotel or somewhere else?"

"Can we walk around or something?" Cameron asked, suddenly feeling antsy.

* * *

They ended up pulling over at a large outlet mall, for lack of a better place to walk around. Chase got out of the car, shut the door and met Cameron in front of the car. 

He took her hand and said, "Which way?"

"Left," she said firmly.

"Feeling decisive?" he asked as they turned to the left and passed by a sports store.

"I like left," she said. "It's the side of the bed we always end up on," she added with a lightsmile.

"Don't forget that cute birthmark on," Chase began.

"Shhh…" Cameron interrupted him. As happy she was that he hadnoticed the light brown blotch a few inches below her left hip, she didn't want him to announce it to everybody that they passed, including a teenaged boy whom she was sure had an active enough imagination as it was.

They walked around under the overhang and out of the rain just talking and occasionally making comments about the stores that they passed by. Chase knew that there were definitely more important things that they should have been talking about, but he just wanted to lighten her mood. He hated seeing her with sad, heavy eyes. He knew she was still thinking about her dad, how could she not? But he figured that he could at least cheer her up a little.

'_Plus,'_ he thought. _'We still have plenty of time to talk about that.'_

The thought stayed with him as he pulled her intoa hug, slightly surprising her, and kissed her.

"I love you."

* * *

**TBC.**

**PS. sorry if it turned out to be a drawn out filler chapter. **:-(**I hope you liked it though.**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N: Thanks to everybody who has reviewed since I started this story, it is really appreciated and keeps me writing.

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After the forth day they had developed a routine; wake up, call in sick, grab something to eat, and eventually make their way to the hospital. They both knew they couldn't do this much longer, they had to go back to work soon, despite the large amount of sick days they both had saved up. Cameron had agreed that they would continue their routine for two more days, and then head back, as long as her father got transferred to Princeton Plainsboro. Chase reluctantly agreed to the last part of her bargain.

Meanwhile lawyers and hospital personnel were busy searching through his will and attempting to discover if he had a living will written or not. In many ways Cameron hoped he did, and then she wouldn't be forced to make any decisions that she could regret later. But she also knew that if he did she might not agree with whatever her father had previously decided.

She sighed at the thought and pushed it away for later. At this point she still tried to keep a bit of hope for her dad.

"Hey Robert?" Cameron said from the chair by her dad's bed. He looked over at her. "Can I be alone for a while?" she asked as gently as possible. She hated to ask but she really just wanted some time to process the last few days.

"Yeh, of course," he said. "Call me, okay?" he added as he got off the chair by her side.

"I will," she said and kissed him as he bent over her. "I love you."

She sat silently in the chair, lost in her thoughts. Oddly her mind led her to Chase, not her dad. She thought about how much they had been through. _'The irony of it all is that it took me being high to finally get up the courage to do something,'_ she thought.

She admitted to herself that she had made some bad decisions during that specific time in her life, but calling Chase that night would never be something she would regret, no matter how wrong it seemed to anybody else. She didn't want to think about what would have happened if they had just decided to leave that night behind them and forget it ever happened. She realized she had never thanked him for everything that he had helped her through.

* * *

Chase sighed, he knew it was reasonable for her to want to be alone now, but he couldn't stop the feeling that he had of wanting to be there next to her. He smiled lightly at the effect she had on him even when he wasn't with her. 

Chase drove on towards the outlet mall they had stopped at the previous day, but pulled over at a smaller collection of shops that looked to be more upscale than the outlet. He got out and started walking alongside the sidewalk, paying some attention to the designer shops and displays behind clear glass walls.

He couldn't help but smile as he watched a young couple walk out of a jewelry shop and kiss before walking off smiling, seemilngly oblivious to anything else.

He wished he could see Cameron that happy again. _'Probably could,' _he thought and shivered as he walked into the respectable jewelers wondering if they would eventually get engaged. He was surprised to find such a nice place in this location.

"Can I help you, sir?" a store employee in a suit asked as Chase stood in the middle of the store glancing around.

The simple question caught him off guard. "I don't know," Chase said, suddenly feeling quite foolish.

"Are you looking for something specific?" the employee asked. "A gift, earrings maybe?"

Chase slightly shook his head 'no', but didn't directly answer the taller, sharp dressed man.

Theman smiled knowingly. "Engagement ring?"

Chase grinned a bit and shrugged. "Why not? Let's see what you've got."

'_Hey, I've got time to waste,'_ Chase thought, justifying him staying.

The employee, who introduced himself as William Bradley "you can call me Bill", led Chase to a glass counter. The inside of it filled with diamond rings sparkling from the strategically placed lights above them.

"We have stones set in 18kt white, rose, or yellow gold and platinum. Have anything specific in mind?" Chase shook his head. "We can also custom craft a ring if you don't see anything you like."

Chase glanced at the rings, they were all beautiful, but seemed very manufactured, average. He wanted something unique, something special for Cameron.

"You can do that now?"

"You'll have to pick it up in a couple weeks, but you can pick out a design and customize it today."

"A couple weeks? I guess I can manage that," Chase said,though he didn't know if he would be able to.

He couldn't tell himself why he was getting a ring there, at that moment, but he just couldn't walk away, despite how terrible his timing was.

* * *

Cameron had been pacing back and forth in the small hospital room for a few minutes. Her thoughts were unsettling and she felt too un-useful just sitting in the chair looking from her dad to the window that overlooked the courtyard. 

"I wish you knew," she said to her dad as she stopped her pacing for a brief moment and, for a change, let her anger show. "I wish you knew what you did to me, what you're doing to me," she added, complimenting her anger with exaggerated hand gestures.

She let that off her chest and reminded herself that it was not his fault for being here. That she knew, but she was still angry. At him, at her past. She did, however, feel better for finally vocalizing her frustrations.

"What," she started again but stopped when she glanced back over at her dad. "Oh, what's the use? You can't hear any of this," she said aloud and felt a bit guilty for yelling.

She had been going from angry, to sad, to numb since she had realized that he might not survive. Cameron wondered if it was possible to experience all the supposed "steps of loss" at the same time.

She sat back down momentarily and realized how emotionally worn out the whole situation was making her. A single tear left her eye and began rolling down her cheek.

Wiping it away she bent over and picked up her purse and pulled out her phone. She dialed Chase's number.

"Hello," he answered in the same soft voice that she always found comfort in.

"Hey." Her voice cracked. "Can you pick me up?" The tone of her voice echoed the pain that had finally caught up with her.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

"Not really," she finally admitted to him.

"I'll be there," he responded and let her end the call.

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**TBC. review please.**


	10. Chapter 10

**A/N: Quick update, just for everybody who has been reviewing! The next chapter has more going on (I've already written half of it) but nevertheless, here's this chapter. I hope to get the next chapter up quickly too. Review please.**

**Quick Disclaimer: I don't own Dunkin Doughnuts. While I'm at it i may as well remind you that I dont own the the characters too.

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"You sure you're ready?" Chase asked as he slammed the trunk shut after placing the last piece of luggage inside.

"Yeh, we agreed two more days. Besides, I think it's time we got back to the real world," Cameron said.

"I couldn't agree more. You want me to check out?" he asked.

"Yeh, thanks," she said and opened the car door to climb inside.

Chase would have never told her but he was glad to be leaving. The best thing for both of them would be returning to the relatively normal lives they had led before. Things were going to be different, there was no denying that, but he was just thankful to be going back.

He waited in line behind a snobby woman who refused to accept that she should have to pay for her stay simply because her wireless internet could not hook up.

"I'm sorry ma'am but there's not much more I can do for you," the clerk told her.

The woman let out an exasperated sigh and stalked out of the lobby.

"Can I help you?" the clerk asked Chase in a voice that pleaded with him not to have any complications or complaints.

"I just have to check out," Chase said and handed the man the room keys.

Chase shook his head to himself as he walked back to the car. _'Some people,'_ he thought.

"Ready to roll?" he asked, exaggerating his accent a bit too much, causing Cameron to laugh a bit and shake her head.

"You still can't pull that off. What are you trying to go for anyway?" she asked him as they pulled out of the lot.

"Rock and roll," he answered in the same voice. He reached over and pressed the preset button for a classical rock station.

Instead, Shania Twain's 'Any Man of Mine' blared out of the speakers.

"That's not very _rock and roll_ of you," she said with a grin.

He quickly turned the radio down and said, "Safe to say the stations are different here."

Cameron smiled a real, full smile that was genuinely a smile. It made Chase happy to see her laugh and smile with him. The past week hadn't been easy for her, but nevertheless she had stayed strong, after finally crashing. All she needed to do, she discovered, was let it all out once, and she'd be fine.

* * *

The ride back was pretty much like the ride there, with exception of the frequent stops at the Dunkin Doughnuts rest stops. 

"Don't you think you've had enough coffee? We don't even drink this much at work," Cameron said as Chase put his blinker on and drove into another rest area.

"Whose fault is it that I didn't sleep last night?" he asked and parked the car.

She shot him a look as if she was looking over the rims of her glasses, if she had been wearing them at the moment.

"Kidding, kidding," he said and reached over to place a hand on her arm. "Want anything?"

"Yeh, you're making me want doughnuts, go figure. Could you grab me a powdered one?"

"Be right back," he said and with a quick kiss he was on his way in.

'_He's going to be so buzzed,'_ she thought and remembered the day that chase had drank at least five cups of coffee in a row so he could stay up at work. What an interesting day that had been. Suddenly she was glad he was only on his forth cup. She wouldn't let him get to five, just to be safe.

She remembered that her dad used to drink coffee; she would always wake to the smell every Monday, when her dad was still around anyway.

"_Only Mondays," her dad once told her. "Because Mondays are the worst. I wouldn't make it without coffee."_

"_What about Tuesday?" she could almost hear herself saying as she sat at the breakfast bar before she left for school._

"_Not as bad," her father said simply before heading off to work._

"One powdered doughnut?" she heard Chase say.

"Thanks," she said taking the bag, and wishing she had asked him to get her a bottle of juice. _'Oh well.'_

"Didn't know if you wanted something to drink, so I got a water, a milk, and an orange juice." Chase added, handing her a plastic bag.

"Little overkill don't you think?" She smiled.

"I didn't remember what you like with doughnuts," he said as if it was something he ought to know.

"It's okay, thanks," she said and pulled out the white doughnut and took a bite.

Chase stopped before pulling back onto the interstate. He leaned over and kissed the corner of her mouth. "Powder," he explained as he pulled out and adjusted his speed. She just smiled back at him.

'_Yeh, could definitely see myself marrying her,'_ Chase thought, and knew that getting the ring had been perfect, in every way but timing. He wished he had gotten up the nerve to ask her before, but everything had just happened so fast with her dad.

* * *

"Oh, it is so good to be back!" Cameron exclaimed as she dropped her suitcase by the sofa. 

"Eighteen messages?" Chase said.

"House," they both guess at nearly the same time.

And they were right. After the third message from him there was a couple from friends, but then, more from House.

"Amazing that both of you are sick, conveniently at the same time. I would bring you soup but I'm afraid it might be contagious." House's voice sounded from the machine.

"If you don't come back tomorrow, you're both doing my clinic for the next year!"

Cameron rolled her eyes. "He makes us do that anyway."

"Interesting how he still found time to leave all these messages for us," Chase said as he held his hand over the 'erase all' button.

"Do it, **please**," Cameron told him.

They brought up the rest of their stuff and decided not to unpack; it would still be there tomorrow.

Chase sat down on the couch and slipped his shoes off. "Come sit," he said to Cameron, who was in the kitchen.

She came over, sat next to him and found the place between his shoulder and his chest where her head seemed to fit perfectly.

* * *

**TBC**


	11. Chapter 11

**A/N: Decided I should post this before school starts. The line tool wasn't working, in case you were wondering what was up with the 'C's, they mean changing scenes.**

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"They said he's getting transferred in three days," Cameron said as they walked into Princeton Plainsboro and made their way to the diagnostics room.

"What are you going to do? Did a living will ever turn up?" Chase asked.

"His lawyer said he never wrote one, probably didn't even know what one was."

"Oh," was all he said. Chase didn't want to remind her that she could have a big decision to make. She already knew. Chase knew that when Cameron was ready she would share her thoughts with him.

"Thank God you're back!" Foreman exclaimed when they walked into the room.

"Never expected to hear that," Chase whispered to Cameron.

"Me either," she whispered back. This to Foreman, "That fun, huh?"

"Let's not go there," he said and with a smile added, "New patient just came in. Twenty-something female, she was close to an OD." Foreman collected the files from the table. Before either of them had a chance to ask why they were dealing with an almost OD Foreman handed the files to Chase and announced, "It's all political. Have fun, I'm going home. Tell House I'm on my lunch break." And with that he left, smiling.

"Guess it wasn't very nice to leave him alone with House," Cameron said. She grabbed her lab coat and put it on.

"He sort of deserved it," Chase said and sat down next to her.

"Yeh, but I didn't," House said as he limped in. "Do you have any idea how arrogant that man can get? He refused to do MRI's, LP's. Told me he wasn't my puppet," House went on.

Cameron cleared her throat. "Back to the patient," she interrupted him.

"It's all political. Mommy and daddy refuse to believe their kid is a druggie. So being important contributors to the hospital, they pull strings and _bam_ she's our patient. Run some tests and when they show what we already know, just let her detox," he told them. "I'm taking lunch." He waved his hand as if he were shooing stray cats away.

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Cameron and Chase headed over to the patient's room. She was in bad shape, her system already cleared out, but the after effects of whatever she took were clearly still affecting her. The young woman had long black hair that had been pushed aside and messed up. She was extremely pale. Cameron read off her chart that her name was Amelia Winn. She wondered briefly if her father was a political figure, she could imagine the slogans _'Win with Winn.'_

Chase took blood samples to run tests and Cameron read over what little information was on her charts.

"She's only 22," she told Chase as he finished getting the sample.

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"Hey Al, know what I was thinking about the other day?" Chase asked as the walked towards the hospital labs.

She loved it when he called her that at work, mainly because he usually kept it professional around everybody else.

"I just got a bill for next month's rent on my apartment," he began to explain.

"Wow," she looked up at him. She couldn't believe that after all the time he had been living with her he'd never cleared out his apartment. "I forgot you were still paying rent on that."

Me too, actually. So, I was thinking I might as well stop putting money into it," he said.

"And formally move in?" she asked with a slight smile. He basically had already moved in, but the idea still excited her. Something about the sounds of it was just so appealing.

"What do you think?" he asked, glad she had actually brought up the question.

"I don't see why not," she told him.

"Okay I'll go over later and sort through what's left over there."

"Need help?"

"Sure, I don't have a clue what I left over there." Chase and only kept renting the apartment because when they started living together he was never quite sure if she really wanted him there or not. Now he was sure, and figured it best to move past that old part of his life. He felt a knot in his stomach as he glanced over to Cameron.

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They ran the blood and while waiting for the results they decided to ask the girl some questions for themselves.

"How long have you been using?" Cameron asked.

"Uh, I don't know, not long," the girl replied wearily. She blinked heavily.

They both knew that was a lie. But before either of them had a chance to dispute it a young man dressed almost head to toe in black and chains walked over to the hospital bed angrily.

"What the hell did you do? How could you OD? You could have died!" the man raised his voice.

Cameron raised her eyebrows and glanced over at Chase. He shrugged.

"Look," Amelia said to him. "I only took what you gave me. Same as every other time, so get off my back about it." It took her longer than it would normally for her to say all that.

Cameron was shocked that she would say that right in front of herself and Chase.

"Okay, we'll just leave you two here to talk," Chase announced. Both of them ignored Chase and Cameron completely.

They headed back to the lab and picked up their results.

"Uh, if she's been using before, then how didn't she know how much ecstasy her body could handle?" Chase asked after they both glanced at the report.

"Then how did she get so much in her system?" Cameron voiced what they were both thinking.

"Interesting," he replied.

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"We asked her if she took anything else with it, she didn't know. And she claims that she would never take that many pills."

"So she's lying, she took 7 pills and doesn't want Cameron to know. But if you want to waste your time perusing it, go ahead, cuddy still wants me to do something. Actually she wants money. I told her there are easier ways to make money, but I guess that wouldn't be appropriate for the hospital," House went on, basically talking to himself at this point.

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It was 6:30 and they both decided to leave.

"Had enough?" Chase asked, half joking. They grabbed their stuff and headed out.

"It just bugs me that she had so much in her system. We should test for…"

Chase cut her off, placing his hand on the arm. "Tomorrow. She's not dying she's just detoxing."

Cameron smiled. "Okay."

"I forgot how small this place is," Cameron said after Chase unlocked the door. "Why'd you rent so small?"

"Never planned on staying long," Chase answered.

"So why stick around? Millions of other hospitals."

"No reason really, it was supposed to be a temporary position, but I liked it. Despite out slightly dysfunctional team," Chase explained as he turned a few lights on.

"Slightly?" Cameron laughed at this.

"Hey, be grateful for it. Cuddy's too busy cleaning up after House to even care about us. No dating coworkers; I'm sure it's written somewhere."

"Works out well then, doesn't it?" Cameron said and walked around to where Chase was standing.

"Very well," Chase decided and showed it with a kiss." Okay, most of my stuff is at your place, we've just got to decide what to do with everything else."

"Store it?" Cameron asked. She pulled a hair tie off her wrist and lifted her hair into a ponytail.

"All of it?"

"Okay, I'm sure we don't need this," she said and picked up a lamp with a plastic football as a base.

He had gotten it in the mail from his aunt and hated it. Chase smiled. "Oh, really? I was thinking it would look good next to the bed."

"Ha. Ha," she said sarcastically.

They spent the better part of two hours deciding what they would keep and what they would give away.

"You actually have food in here?" Cameron asked when she opened his fridge and found a few bottled of water and some old Tupperware containers. She picked one of the containers up and opened it. "Hey, Robert, did you want to keep this?"

Chase came over from the other side of the open room holding a few CD's. She tilted the container so he could see the completely mold-covered food. Cameron guessed that it was probably left-over Chinese. _'At one point anyway.'_

"I think I can find a better place for that," Chase said and held up the garbage so Cameron could throw it in.

"This is exciting," Cameron admitted to Chase as they took a short break to sit down.

"What, throwing away old meat?"

"No," she smiled. "You moving out."

"But," he started to say that he'd basically already moved in to her place, but he stopped himself. "I know." He brought her closer to him on the couch and wrapped his arms around her. "I love you. God, I feel like I don't say that enough to you."

Cameron laughed lightly and kissed him. "You say it plenty, not that I ever get tired of hearing it."

They stayed like that for a while longer, both wrapped in their thoughts; Chase wondering when would be the best time to propose to Cameron. Somehow dinner at a fancy restaurant just wasn't enough. He decided he would wait for things to gain at least some stability with her dad before he sprung that on her.

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**A/N: I'm not sure how I feel about this chapter, so let me know how you liked it. Please Review!**


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N: Wow, thanks for all the positive reviews! They absolutely make my day. So here's the next chapter, enjoy.**

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House wanted them to drop the case. "There's nothing to diagnose, she's on drugs, and I really don't care how many she took."

"What if she wasn't able to metabolize them for a reason? That would cause her levels to be higher," Cameron told him what she and Chase had brainstormed the day before.

"We ran tests, there's nothing wrong with her. She's healthy," House argued with her.

"Fine, I'm checking her apartment!" Cameron nearly yelled.

She stalked out of House's office, leaving Chase standing there, not quite knowing what to do. House stared back at him, almost daring him to say something.

"Okay then," Chase said awkwardly before leaving.

"Cameron, wait," he called after Cameron as he ran to catch up with her.

He said nothing about her mini-explosion towards House. It was unlike her; normally she went along with House or voiced her opinion, without screaming.

* * *

"She lives with her boyfriend," Cameron told him as they entered the empty apartment by using the key that had been with the girl's belongings. 

They didn't think twice anymore about breaking into patient's homes. That worried them all a bit.

"He's quite the character," Chase commented on their earlier encounter with him.

They each took different rooms in the more than adequate apartment, working silently as they uncovered nothing that would be of importance to them.

"Got anything?" Cameron asked as they both entered the bedroom from opposite doors.

"Nothing, not even the drugs that they clearly take."

They searched the room quickly, not finding much until Chase pulled open the top dresser drawer. He pulled out several prescription bottles and a large baggie of what he assumed, was ecstasy.

"Hey, Al," he called her over.

They sat down on the bedroom floor and started sorting through all the bottles and soon realized that many of the medications were for AIDS.

"Okay, but she doesn't have AIDS, or even HIV," Cameron realized. "Who's this?" she pointed to the name on the bottle. The drugs were prescribed to a Martin Hailey.

Chase thought for a moment. "No idea." Neither of them spoke for a few minutes. "Okay so there's AIDS meds, Prozac, and some antihistamines," Chase finally said. "What if they were mixing drugs?"

"Ritonavir," she held up an orange bottle. "is metabolized by the same pathways as ecstasy. If she took both it would have quadrupled her levels. But she doesn't have AIDS, why would she have taken any Ritonavir in the first place?" she said as if she was taking both sides of an argument. Nobody was winning.

"Calm down," Chase said gently. "We don't really need to know why she took it, but you're right, she probably mixed. Thought it might make a good high." He was careful how he voiced his agreement with House. They didn't need to push the case any further.

Apparently Cameron still caught on to it. "You agree with him! You think we're wasting our time. Fine, let's go." Cameron scooped up all the bottles and deposited them back into the drawer. She walked out of the apartment without another word.

"Whoa," Chase said aloud when she was gone. It amazed him that she was so upset with him. Just yesterday they had cleaned out most of his apartment. He had thought that had brought them closer. Maybe she didn't want them to make that step.

Chase wasn't satisfied with that explanation. He sighed and straightened out what little in the room they had disturbed. It occurred to him why Cameron was being so defensive. Her dad was getting transferred in tomorrow or the day after. She still hadn't made an official decision about keeping him on life support and the case was keeping her from dealing with it. The way Chase figured it, she was busying herself.

He didn't know what he should do. Chase locked the door and followed Cameron's path, relocking the door on the way out.

Cameron drove back to the hospital, not saying a word to Chase until they arrived.

"Sorry I blew up at you," she said as they got out of the car.

She didn't wait for him to respond. Cameron walked quickly back inside the hospital, leaving Chase several steps behind her. _'It's going to be a long afternoon,'_ Chase thought.

* * *

Chase sat down on a stone bench outside and waited for Cameron. It was that perfect time of day when the sun was just going down and the sky held a light tint of yellow. The chill of night was taking over the warm day. Chase sat and watched people walk by him, some leaving work, and others just coming in. He waved to a doctor he knew from the NICU. 

They had gotten wrapped up in a new patient and every time he tried to talk to Cameron was interrupted by House ordering them to run more tests. With the day finally over and their newest patient stable, he was ready to talk to her.

When she didn't show up Chase walked back into the hospital, taking an educated guess as to where she was.

He stood in the doorway, watching Cameron talk to Amelia.

"Were you taking anything else with the ecstasy?" Cameron was asking her. Somehow her tone managed to be non-accusatory.

"Not that I remember, but I was pretty fucked up."

"Do you know if you usually take anything else?" Cameron asked.

"Prozac sometimes," she admitted. Cameron waited for her to explain. "With ecstasy. Ben said it helped my brain or something."

"It reduces neurotoxins, yes."

Chase took advantage of their silence. "Cameron."

She looked over at him. Chase swore she could melt ice with that stare.

"Do you have a minute?" he asked her.

She told Amelia she would be back and walked out of them room, shutting the door so they could have a bit of privacy.

"I think we should go home, get some rest." He cautiously placed a hand on her arm.

"Fine, just give me 10 minutes." She was in no mood to argue with him.

"Alright. I'll be back in 10."

Cameron turned to go back into the room, Chase lightly grasped her arm. "Hey," he said as she turned back around. "I love you," he told her, though he knew she was still a bit upset.

* * *

'_Well, at least now I have time to talk with Cuddy,' _he thought as he made his way to her office, hoping she was still working. She was. 

Chase knocked lightly on the doorway before entering.

Cuddy slid her glasses off and looked up from her paperwork.

"Can I talk to you for a minute? I need to ask you for a favor."

Cuddy looked up at him with interest. "Sit down," she said, inviting him in.

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**TBC! Please review.**


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N: This chapter is a bit on the short side, I know. Thanks for all the reviews, I cannot believe that I've gotten so many for this story, it's incredible. Keep them coming.**

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"Let me get this straight. You want me to send you to an imaginary conference, lie to House, _and_ you're not going to tell me why?" Cuddy stared at him

"Let me get this straight. You want me to send you to an imaginary conference, lie to House, and you're not going to tell me why?" Cuddy stared at him. 

"I can't," Chase told her. He started to explain but was cut off by Cuddy.

"You've been spending too much time around House. I can't do that."

"I need to pick up Allison's engagement ring," he blurted out quickly, as if he was still unsure whether he should tell Cuddy.

Cuddy said nothing, but her eyes widened a bit in surprise. She didn't know what to think. "What?" she asked quietly.

"It's back in Pennsylvania."

"Not that it is any of my business, but now doesn't exactly seem like the best time, am I right?" she asked.

He sighed. "I know," and he did. It seemed like all he thought about anymore was when the right moment would be. It was beginning to look like he was going to have to wait it out.

Cuddy set her glasses down on her desk on top of a stack of paperwork. "Let me think about it."

Chase walked out and glanced down at his watch. He would meet Cameron early.

To his surprise she was already walking down the hallway toward him when he stepped out of Cuddy's office

She came closer and asked, "What did Cuddy need?"

"Nothing important," Chase began.

"Never mind, you've got to hear this," she told him and he could tell she was fired up about something. "Amelia always took whatever her boyfriend handed to her, assuming it was the 'harmless' drugs they always took. Well if the meds she took were fatal…"

Chase interrupted her, "It's not really our place to make those sorts of accusations Allison."

"He tried to kill her," she argued.

"We don't know that."

"He'll just try to do it again," she said.

"Well hopefully she will think twice before taking the drugs again," Chase said and put his hand on her back and started to walk towards the elevator.

She walked alongside of him, her initial irritation subsiding. "I thought you would care more."

It wasn't an angry remark, but it still stung. Chase stopped walking briefly and looked Cameron in the eyes. "It's not that I don't care, I just…don't see what we could possibly do about it."

She was silent for a moment. "Alright, let's just go home," she said reluctantly. He was right in saying that they couldn't do anything about it. She just wished there was something.

Cameron had told the patient what she had concluded, but the young girl just looked at her as if she were crazy. _"You're digging too deep. Ben loves me, he…he just wouldn't,"_ Amelia had said to her.

That bothered Cameron, how could the girl trust him so much that she would be completely ignorant to what she had told her. She hoped that Amelia would consider her hospitalization the next time her boyfriend offered her drugs. It was easy enough to give somebody the wrong concoction.

"We should go somewhere," Chase suggested, distracting Cameron from her thoughts.

"Tonight?"

"Why not?" Chase asked. "It's only 8. The night is young," he whispered the last part into her ear, stepping closer to her.

"Not tonight, okay?" She said, pushing him away a little. She was too tired to go anywhere.

Chase could feel Cameron distancing herself from him. He stopped walking for a moment, stopping Cameron as well.

"What is it?" she asked.

He took hold of her hands. "Are we okay?" She gave him a questioning glance. "It just seems like you're still upset with me. About earlier," he told her, referencing to the minor argument they had earlier that day. It had been work related but he sensed there was something more to it.

"I guess I just expected you to back me up on that," she admitted.

Chase smiled. "We're not going to agree with each other all the time."

"Good point," she agreed reluctantly. "I guess I'll have to forgive you," she teased.

"You guess?"

"Yeh. It might take some convincing though," she said, trying not to laugh.

Chase pulled her closer and kissed her neck.

Cameron smiled; she never could stay mad at him for long, especially when he did that.

* * *

When they got into the hospital the next day one of the nurses informed Cameron that Cuddy wanted to speak with her. 

Chase instantly thought about what he had talked to Cuddy about the other day and assured himself that he was being ridiculous in thinking that Cuddy would tell Cameron about their conversation.

"I'll catch up with you later," Cameron told Chase as she walked toward Cuddy's office.

Chase nodded and wished he could go with her, just to make sure Cuddy didn't say anything. He could just imagine the conversation Cameron would have with him if she did.

* * *

"It's not lupus, why are you so stuck on that?" Chase asked Foreman as they sat around the table. They had decided to start the differential without Cameron, House had been growing more and more impatient with every minute that they had waited for her. 

"She shows all the…"

Foreman was cut off by the glass door opening and Cameron peeking in. "Chase, can I talk to you for a minute," she said, opting to call him by last name, as weird as it felt for her to do so.

He gave her a '_can't this wait_' look, but decided she wouldn't have interrupted them if it weren't important.

"I'll be right back," Chase excused himself from the room, ignoring House's glare.

"What is it?" Chase asked.

Her expression fell. "My father was transferred in early this morning."

"Oh. Are you going to go see him?" he asked.

"I'm not sure. I want to but..." she trailed off, not quite sure how she felt.

"Just remember we can't turn him into one of our cases," Chase pointed out gently.

Cameron smiled a bit. "Cuddy just told me the same exact thing. I wish I could save him. But it's not going to happen. I get that."

She had learned that she couldn't save everyone that she loved. Cameron's mind flashed to her husband, she rarely thought about him anymore, it brought up too many things for her. Too many memories.

She couldn't save her husband from cancer and she couldn't save her dad from this.

"I should get back," Chase said after a moment.

"Alright. I'm just going to go see him; I'll be there in a few."

Chase didn't know whether he should offer to go with her, but he chose not to. She needed to confront this on her own.

* * *

**TBC. **


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N: A quick update just for all my readers. My way of apologizing for the past slow updates. Enjoy.**

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"Wait, you're actually serious?" Cameron asked Chase as he peeked in to say bye to her, his briefcase in hand.

"I told you last night. It's just a one day conference. I'll be back late though."

Cameron stepped out of the warm bed and was cold in her ribbed tank top and shorts. "Couldn't Foreman have gone?" she asked. Cameron wandered over to Chase. Taking his free arm and looping it around herself, she leaned into him.

Chase held back a laugh at the thought of him trying to convince Foreman to pick up Cameron's engagement ring. "Cuddy didn't think so. She wanted an IC specialist to go." It was killing him to lie to her. He just hoped she wouldn't ask any more questions.

"You should be going then," she told him and turned to kiss him. She reluctantly broke off the kiss. "Call me when you get there."

"I will."

Chase wanted to stay, he hated leaving her there. He reached over to her and let his hand linger on her cheek.

With another goodbye and a kiss he was gone, leaving a trace of guilt inside of him for lying. He pushed it aside and focused on his driving. He hoped his memory would not get him lost. Some day he would have to invest in an atlas.

* * *

He made excellent time on the way there, only taking a wrong exit once. Chase pulled into a parking lot and gathered an empty coffee cup and the bag his bagel had been in. He tossed the garbage into a nearby trashcan and walked into the familiar store. 

Chase didn't know why he was so surprised to see the same man who helped him the last time walk over and greet him. He searched his brain for the man's name. Nothing came to mind.

"Pick up?" the man asked.

"Yes," Chase responded and followed the man to a counter. "For Robert Chase."

The employee disappeared into a back room and returned moments later. Chase was getting anxious to see if the ring was what he had imagined it would be. He had, for the most part, designed it after all, and he hoped his relatively simple design would turn out well. The box was opened and set on the counter, apparently for Chase to inspect. He felt awkward about it, but picked up the delicate box up regardless.

His mouth nearly opened as he viewed the ring. It was so clear and the cut itself was allowing the most possible reflection of light. A relatively large princess cut diamond was placed in the center of two smaller diamonds set in a platinum band. The inscription on the inside was what he was most proud of. He was sure that Cameron would like it, whenever she got it, anyway.

Chase's reaction was enough of a reassurance that he liked it, so the salesman reached under the counter and opened a small bag with the store's name and logo printed on it.

Chase shut the box and handed it over. He produced a credit card and gave that to the man as well.

* * *

It was a bit after noon when Chase exited the store and returned to his car, locking the bag in the glove compartment. As much as he wanted to start the four hour drive back and be home by the time Cameron was getting out of work, he couldn't. Being caught in this scheme that took him so long to put together would not be ideal. 

Lunch would pass some time, he decided. Settling on a small café, Chase parked his car and stepped out. The chilly air biting at him through his light jacket, Chase hurried into the building.

"One," he told the hostess and followed her to a table near the corner of the bustling café.

He was handed a menu and before leaving, the hostess shot him a wide, toothy smile.

'_Pizzas, burgers...'_ he thought absently as he scanned the menu. None of it sounded good, but his empty stomach disagreed.

His phone ringing from its belt clip interrupted Chase's contemplations about lunch. A quick look at the caller ID on the outside screen told him that it was Cameron. He smiled at the picture that popped up underneath her name; a snapshot of Cameron laughing at something. _'Probably me,'_ he thought. He loved that picture, and refused to delete it, despite Cameron's wishes.

"Hey." Chase answered the phone.

"Where are you?" she asked, her voice unsteady.

"Lunch," Chase replied vaguely. "Is something wrong?"

"They want me to make a decision," she explained.

Chase was momentarily lost, and then it hit him like a brick when he made the connection. "They can't make you decide now, not legally," he told her. It was probably the most objective thing he could have said to her.

"The lawyers, Dr. Bell, they all need answers," she told him, growing uneasy.

"Hey, hon, take a breath." Chase left the menu on the table and walked out of the restaurant. "Where are you right now?"

"The shower room. I'm going to tell them to disconnect him. He's vegetative, it's not a life that anybody wants," she rambled on, mumbling at this point.

She didn't need to justify her actions to Chase, he understood what she wanted but it came as quite a surprise that she was willing to make that decision right now. "Are you sure? You can wait," he asked gently.

"For what?" she asked. "He's not going to recover."

She was right, but it didn't seem like the right time for her to come to this conclusion.

"I'm coming home," he told her. "Don't make anything final 'till I get there, okay?" Chase got into his car and began searching for signs to I-195.

"You're not going to change my mind," Cameron informed him with a certain finality to the statement.

"I'm not trying to," he reassured her.

"I haven't even gone in to see him yet and they want me to let him die," she went on.

Chase didn't ask her where she had gone the other day when she missed the diagnoses of their newest patient. He figured she had simply not been up to seeing her father.

"Do you want to see him?" he asked her. Chase switched lanes and flicked his blinker off.

She paused. "I don't know."

"How about this; we'll both go see him when I get back?" he offered.

Chase could hear the smile in her voice as she said, "Okay."

"I'll see you I a few hours."

"Thanks. Uh, I've got to get back before House starts looking for me," Cameron said, regaining her professionally calm composure.

"Just promise me you won't make anything final," he said.

"Alright."

"Love you," Chase said, but she had already hung up.

Chase sighed and pulled onto the interstate. Searching for a distraction he turned on the radio and adjusted the station. _Waiting on the World to Change_ filled the silence of his car.

* * *

"Hello?" Chase flipped open his phone without looking at the caller ID. 

"Hi," Cameron said in a small voice.

"What's happening?"

"I'm going to go home okay?" They had just released their patient with a clean bill of health and she had nothing left to do.

"Wait a minute," Chase told her. He parked the car and got out. A smile formed as he walked up to Cameron who was sitting on a bench facing the away from the parking lot, phone to her ear.

She heard footsteps approaching her and turned around, slightly startled to see Chase standing behind her. She closed her cell phone as Chase sat down close to her.

"Sorry you missed your conference," she said.

"Don't even worry about it." He took her hand in his. "Still want to go home?"

"I still haven't seen him," she told him, not directly answering his question.

It was enough of an answer for Chase. He stood up and Cameron followed him, staying close.

* * *

"See, I can't let him 'live' like this," Cameron said, gesturing towards the machines. "If he was aware of all this I know he wouldn't want it either. He was too active to just lie in bed all day, never slept past 7. I hated that. He would always wake me up, whatever happened the night before was forgotten in the morning," she said, a slight grin playing on her lips. 

Chase was glad that she was able to have some decent memories of her father. She clearly loved him, despite everything he had unwittingly put her through.

He looped an arm around her waist and said, "You'll do the right thing, hon. Just give it some time."

"I know. And Robert?"

"Yeh?"

"Thanks." He could never know how much he was doing by just being there.

He kissed the top of her head in response.

* * *

**TBC**


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N: Yep, it's late, don't hate me! The next chapter_ should_ be up sooner. Oh, and I just realized that it's almost the 1 year anniversary for this story, can you believe it? Anyway, thanks to all the reviewers!**

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She had driven in early in her own car that morning to sit with her dad. The doctors had told her that they would turn off the machines in the early morning.

Cameron sat in the chair by the hospital bed. She didn't know what to feel. Numbness washed over her as she watched the life leave her fathers body. _'I shouldn't be here,'_ she told herself. _'I shouldn't be watching him die.'_ But she couldn't force herself to leave.

She had given the doctors the answer they were looking for. Cameron signed the forms and felt the irony of being on the other side of those forms.

Signing them had made her decision final. Cameron was oddly comfortable with that. Sure, she didn't want him to die, she wanted to have a relationship with her father. But keeping him alive like this would only promote a false hope of recovery.

His life was slipping away; the monitor would surely show no life signs in a matter of moments. He would code, but nobody was going to come running in an attempt to save his life. He was too far gone.

Cameron reached out and touched her father's hand. It was still warm. "I'm sorry dad," she said and shifted her eyes towards the door to stop tears from forming. Chase was standing in the doorway looking over at her.

The monitor continued to beep slower, his heart rate was near stopping.

"Hey," he said. Chase walked over and placed his hand reassuringly on her shoulder.

Cameron shot him a weak smile to acknowledge his presence.

The monitor beeped, he was flat lining, officially gone.

"Shut it off," Cameron told Chase as she removed the finger clip. She stared at the object for a moment as the machine shut off. She blinked and unceremoniously dropped the finger clip to the floor, the noise momentarily filled the silence in the room.

Tears formed but didn't fall as she looked at her dad. No machines, no monitor, just him. The numbness stayed with her. She didn't notice much around her as she sat back down in the arm chair near the bed.

"Al," Chase said.

Cameron shook out of her reverie. "Huh?" She looked up at him.

"I think we should go."

"Yeh. I guess you're right," she said. With one more glance at her dad she silently said her goodbye as she stood up and turned away from the bed.

Chase silently looped his arm around Cameron and walked out with her. She surprised him by climbing into the driver's side of her car.

"I'm fine," she told him and looked up at Chase. "You should stay here. Who else is going to diagnose Mr. Lukas?" she asked, referring to their patient.

"You sure?"

"Yeh. I'm fine, you should stay," she repeated.

"I love you. I'll be home early," Chase promised and bent down to lightly kiss her.

Chase waved as Cameron backed out of her spot. He felt bad for staying but she sounded certain that she wanted to be alone. It was reasonable, he knew. Cameron needed time to think, time to remember and let go.

Chase hadn't been sure how she would react after her father died. He was never close with his parents, but when his dad died it was still painful. He had reduced the event to a memory, though he still tried to understand why he never knew his dad was sick.

Distracted by his thoughts about his dad and Cameron, Chase walked back into the hospital and into the conference/break room. He poured himself a cup of coffee and sat down.

"How's Cameron?" Foreman asked, obviously having already heard the news.

"I don't know. In shock, I guess. She went home."

Foreman nodded.

House said nothing; Chase didn't expect him to be sympathetic. He'd been indifferent to patient deaths before, he would have been crazy to think this wouldn't be the same.

After an awkward moment Foreman spoke up and reported test results on their patient. Life went on, after all.

A while later House ordered them to administer a new drug to the patient to gauge his body's reaction. Chase and Foreman made their way up to Mr. Lukas's room.

* * *

"You can handle this, can't you?" Chase asked as he absently watched Foreman inject a new drug into the IV. 

"I _have_ been handling this. Just leave already," Foreman told him as he tossed the needle into a biohazard container. He was sick of doing everything while Chase just followed him around.

Chase rolled his eyes and went to hang up his lab coat and stethoscope.

* * *

Glad to be home, Chase walked into the apartment to find Cameron. He found her in the bedroom asleep. She was sideways on the bed, curled up with her feet slightly off the edge of the bed. Her thumb was holding her place in the closed book by her head. 

Chase smiled, she looked so relaxed. He didn't want to wake her so he slyly took the book, stuck her bookmark in it and laid it on the bedside table.

Finding something to do wasn't as easy as Chase had hoped. Chase paced the living room for a bit, read part of a medical journal, and finally decided to make lunch. He was sure Cameron hadn't eaten yet. He'd wake her for lunch.

* * *

"What are you doing?" Cameron asked from the table. She'd waken to cupboards shutting and pots clacking together. 

"Sorry. I thought you might want some lunch."

"I'm a little beat," she said quietly, sitting down at the breakfast bar.

Chase came over to her. "I know. Do you want to talk about it?"

"Not really."

"It's okay to be mad, you know?"

"At who? It's nobody's fault."

"Just in general, I guess."

She shook her head. "I'm not mad," she told him, her voice the slightest bit unsteady. Cameron was mad at herself, she hated that she hadn't been able to cure her father, but she didn't tell that to Chase.

"Okay." He squeezed her shoulder tightly. "So, about lunch?"

"What are you making?" she asked, glad for the change of subject.

"Grilled cheese." He smiled.

Cameron grinned and rolled her eyes. "What are we, 10?" She looked skeptical. "There's a reason I usually cook," she told him, half joking. It was one of her talents that had surprised him when the first moved in together.

"Come on, just sit down and leave lunch to me. If you hate it, we'll order Chinese."

Cameron smiled at how hard he was trying to convince her to let him cook. "Fine," she said. She kissed him before wandering into the living room and lying on the couch.

Chase turned back to the kitchen and pulled out cheese and butter from the fridge. He looked over at Cameron and wondered if she was truly okay. She was acting all right, but he wasn't sure if she was hiding her grief from him. She never had before but still, he wondered.

These thoughts floated through his head as he semi-concentrated on the sandwiches in the pan.

Soon Chase flicked the burner off and carried two plates out to the living room. He handed Cameron a plate and took a seat next to her on the couch.

"Should I be nervous?" Cameron joked before she took a bite.

"Maybe," he teased between bites of his own sandwich.

This _is_ good," Cameron commented.

He smiled an _'I told you so'_ grin. "I've perfected it over many years."

At first she thought he was kidding. "You ate a lot of grilled cheese when you lived alone, didn't you?"

"My parents never really taught me how to cook," he admitted. She decided to take that as a yes.

"My mom was a terrible cook. She managed macaroni from a box when my dad wasn't around." Cameron laughed lightly at the memory, despite the reason why her dad wasn't there the few times her mom was forced to cook for them. He'd gotten so fed up with the fights that eventually he just walked out of the house in the middle of an argument with her mother. Cameron had never been sure how long he would stay gone.

"Your dad cooked?" he asked, hoping he wasn't digging at new wounds.

She seemed fine with the question. "Somebody had to. He was great at it too." Cameron smiled. She started to talk again but her voice cracked and she felt a lump form in her throat. She sighed and leaned against Chase on the couch, swinging her feet onto the other side of the sofa.

Chase wrapped his arms around her and kissed the top of her head.

* * *

**TBC!**


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N: Guess I should never promise to have future chapters up quickly! Not even going to try to justify this. Please review.**

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It had been four days since her dad had officially died. Four days and today was his funeral. If you could call it that anyway. Cameron had decided on a small service, just her and Chase actually. There wasn't anybody else; everybody who might have normally come was back home. Cameron's mom was somewhere in Indiana and definitely didn't care enough to pay respects to her ex-husband. Cameron hadn't spoken to her in months. Her mom had never forgiven her for getting married at 21. She had called her sister, but she apparently, while shocked, had more important commitments.

The thought of her mother added on to the guilt that Cameron was carrying around. She had been distant with her dad and that had caused both of them pain, yet she chose to treat her mom with the same regards. Maybe the memories stirred up too many mixed emotions that she would rather not confront. Yeh, staying distant was easier.

Thoughts flickered through Cameron's mind as she mentally distracted herself from reality. She and Chase stood before a small granite stone and freshly turned up earth. Her fathers name was neatly carved on to the stone. No priests or speakers at this funeral, just them.

Cameron set down a small bouquet of pink carnations and stepped back. She had the urge to say something but didn't know what, so she just took Chase's gloved hand and after a last glace and a goodbye they walked back to the car.

It wasn't really a final goodbye, Cameron thought as she turned in her seat and grabbed the small opaque bottle from the back. She set it in the cup holder between herself and Chase. She spotted a small number on the side of the bottle and briefly wondered what it meant. Probably an ID number, she figured.

"Which way?" Chase finally spoke while he drove down the highway.

"Next exit," Cameron replied.

Cameron had decided to do one last thing for her father, leave part of him in a place that would always hold good memories. She'd had him cremated just to be able to do this. Her dad had never made it clear to her, or left his wishes in his will about his funeral, so Cameron had decided on cremation.

Another left hand turn and a stoplight later Chase pulled onto a long road that seemed to be deserted, which made sense this time of year. The road, lined lightly with light colored sand, led to one of the popular beach places during the summer.

"So, if you grew up in the Midwest, how come you vacationed here?" Chase asked, the curiosity too overwhelming for him to ignore.

"My grandma had a beach house here, spent a lot of time with her."

"There a boardwalk?"

"Yeh. My dad tried to take me fishing underneath it once. He didn't know that it wasn't allowed." She laughed. "I caught a minnow in my net before some security guy came sprinting towards us. I kept that minnow for the whole day."

"What happened to it?"

"I flushed it. I was 17, I had better things to worry about."

"It wasn't dead?" Chase said with shock.

"It was 10 years ago, I don't remember!" she said.

"You lie, Allison. You killed that minnow," he joked.

"It went to a better place."

"The sewer? Uh-huh." Chase shook his head, laughing.

He dropped it and let the silence come back. He never minded riding in peaceful silence with Cameron. With so many other people, silence while driving was awkward and dragged on. He would look over at her every once in a while just to see her staring out the window, either expressionless or deep in thought.

"Just pull over here," Cameron directed him, pointing to a sand lot.

"You want me to come?" Chase asked and realized it was sort of a stupid question, what was he going to do, sit in the car?

"Yeh."

Cameron put on a pair of gloves and stepped out of the car, holding the small vile of her father's ashes. It was hard for her to think that it was part of him in the bottle.

She uncapped the bottle as they walked closer to the shore, her feet sinking a little in the damp sand. The salty wind blew cold air towards them.

"I've never been here when it was cold before," Cameron thought out loud.

"It's nice, in a way. No people," Chase replied, feeling his face blush from the cold.

Cameron stopped under a pier and looked up at Chase. A smile formed on her face. "You were not meant for the cold." She took off her left glove and poured a little ash into her palm. "I'm not really sure what to do with this."

Chase stepped closer to her and gently poured a little bit from the bottle into his own hand. "Into the wind on three," he told her as they shifted positions so the wind would carry him away. "One, two, three," Chase nearly whispered.

Both of their palms opened and bits of white and black ash flew away with the wind.

Cameron finished and placed the empty bottle in her pocket. A few tears were falling down her cheeks. She was glad she picked this spot; it had meant something to her as a kid and would now have more significance to her.

But she wasn't thinking about the significance. Cameron was remembering her dad. For the first time her thoughts were all positive memories, she wouldn't let bad memories ruin her goodbye. No matter how bad things were at home they always had the beach, will have the beach. It was right that he was here.

* * *

"God, I had the strangest dream last night," Cameron said to Chase as they walked towards the hospital the next morning. Cameron supposed she should feel sad, depressed even, but somehow she felt relieved.

"Me too, House was nice and bought us all puppies," Chase joked.

"I'm serious," she told him after rolling her eyes. She started to speak but both of their pagers went off.

Chase dug his out of his pocket. "House."

I'll tell you about it later," Cameron said before pulling out her cell.

"What do you need?"

"Someone's pissy. Can you get my lunch; I left it in Wilson's office. I figured I would catch you before you came in."

Cameron looked up to see House waving out of one of the windows. She rolled her eyes. "I'm hanging up now."

"Wait. I need you to pick up something at the pharmacy," House started.

"I'm not picking up your Vicodin, House. Or your lunch."

"It's lupus meds for our patient. Though it might be fun to see what would happen if…"

Cameron hung up the phone as they walked through the main entrance. "We have to stop by the pharmacy," she told Chase. "It's probably not lupus anyway…" she muttered.

"I've got clinic this morning, I'll see you later," Chase told her before they split ways.

Chase walked down the hallway, his mind wandering.

Wilson rounded the corner and nearly knocked Chase over.

"Sweet Jesus!" Chase screamed.

Wilson found this quite funny. "Little jumpy are we?"

"I'm just… preoccupied, okay?"

"Ah. House?" Wilson guessed.

"No," Chase said and walked off.

Wilson, obviously unwanted, followed Chase down the hallway, intrigued. "Oh I've been there. It's Cameron isn't it?"

'_He's got to stop hanging out with House,'_ Chase thought to himself.

"It's not what you're thinking."

"You're going to ask her to marry you aren't you?"

Chase stopped in the middle of the hallway are stared questioningly over at Wilson.

"Oh come on, it's written all over your face."

Chase continued walking. Wilson didn't follow.

'_Great, now Wilson knows. And, oh God, House will soon enough.'_ Chase let out a moan before picking up a clipboard of records and walking into an exam room.

* * *

**TBC - I have to figure out what is going to happen first. haha**


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N: A fast update! That's a change. Please thank me for the nice update by reviewing!

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Chase walked down the hallway, muttering to himself. Wilson's comment the previous week had gotten to him. So, after he had finished his clinic duty and spoken to the team for a bit he was finally, after mulling over it for so long, on his way to speak with Wilson.

He got to Wilson's office and saw him working on some paperwork on his desk.

"How did you really know?" Chase asked as he walked into Wilson's office after throwing open the door.

Wilson looked up, confused at first. He thought for a second then figured out what Chase was speaking about and commented, "You're still stuck on that?" Not getting an answer from Chase, he shrugged and continued shuffling papers around on his desk.

"Come off it, you don't just _know_ these things. You're not House," Chase went on. If Wilson knew, he had to have found out from somebody. Silence.

"Fine. A jeweler called here, about your _engagement_ ring. One of the nurses gave me the message. I told him to call your cell. You should tell these people to be a little more subtle. Cameron could have easily picked up that message for you."

"I knew you weren't that good!" Chase exclaimed, as if he had won a bet with somebody. Who else knows?"

"I haven't told House yet, if that's what you're asking."

Chase said nothing, but breathed a sigh of relief.

"That was almost a month ago. I figured you'd have asked her by now," Wilson said.

Chase finally sat down. "Wasn't exactly the best timing."

"Ah," was all he had to say.

"Anyway, I came to ask for a consult, not to talk about Cameron. Our patient, the ballet guy, we think he might have cancer."

"Makes sense, you said he had seized before showing any other symptoms, right?" Wilson asked him.

Chase nodded.

Wilson looked down at his planner. "I've got an appointment now, but I'll find you afterwards."

Chase got up. "Thanks."

* * *

"Robert!" he heard Cameron call from behind him. He turned around. 

"You talked to Wilson?" she asked.

He nodded.

"I thought you just had to ask for a consult?"

"Had to speak to him about another matter too."

Cameron raised an eyebrow, but didn't press the issue.

"So, how are you?" Chase asked, genuinely caring and glad to be able to change the subject. "You haven't really had a chance to think, we've been running around here so much."

"Good." They walked towards the cafeteria. "I've been meaning to ask you," Cameron started, though she had only been waiting for a few hours. "Would it be aright if my sister came and stayed with us for a couple days?"

"Brenna?"

She fought the urge to tell him that she only had one sister. "I haven't called her yet, but I haven't seen her in…" she tried to think back to when she had last seen her. "A long time," she finally said.

"I think it can be arranged," he moved up in the line and grabbed a sandwich from the counter.

Cameron was glad he approved, she knew he wouldn't have a problem with it. In a way she wanted him to say no, it would have given her a reason to avoid her sister altogether, but Cameron knew she couldn't do that.

Both of their pagers went off. They glanced down.

"If he's not coding, I'm going to eat this sandwich!" Chase told her.

"You better save it, he is," Cameron told him.

* * *

"Did you call her?" Chase asked as he stepped out of the bathroom in plaid pajama pants, drying his hair. 

Cameron gave him a half smile.

"You didn't, did you?"

"I can't. The last time I called her was to tell her that dad had died. She wasn't exactly happy to hear from me," Cameron explained her resistance.

Chase smiled at her. When it came to repairing other families, Cameron had no problem jumping in and making whatever calls she had to, but for her own family, she was overly hesitant.

Chase sat down on the couch and tossed the towel towards the bathroom. Cameron looked at the towel and stared up at Chase disapprovingly.

He shook his head and ignored her glare. "Do you want to talk to her?" he asked.

"Well, yeh."

Chase gently took the phone from her hands and pressed the redial button. He figured that she had already dialed the number and just not let it go through. Pressing the phone to his ear, he waited for the second ring.

"It's for you," he told her, handing her the phone.

Her mouth gaped open as she put the phone to her ear. Chase got up, picked up his towel and disappeared down the hallway to give her some privacy.

She almost hung up, but thought, _'oh get over yourself.'_

"Hello?"

"Hi, Brenna?"

"Allison?"

"Yep. I was just wondering how you were doing."

"Fine, I guess. Mom called me, she's got some new boyfriend," she said, laughing a bit at the last part.

"Doesn't surprise me. So what are you up to?" As much as she tried not to, whenever she spoke to her sister she sounded patronizing. Brenna would always be her dramatic baby sister who busted into her room at 3 in the morning because she'd had a bad dream. Even at 6 she knew not to wake up mom and dad.

"Trying to get my acting in line," Brenna explained and gave a few details regarding her current play, a small, semi-popular drama, which Cameron had quite honestly never heard of. "But I'm working part-time at City Hall, don't worry," she added.

"I don't worry about you, Bren, you're 23." Lie.

Brenna said nothing.

"Okay, maybe I do, a little... So are you going to be around Jersey anytime soon?" Cameron asked, bringing up the visit.

"I'm stopping by NYC in a bit to see Jacqui."

Cameron had a feeling she should know who that was. "You should drop by, stay for a little. I haven't seen you since you graduated."

"Sure, I can't get away now though. The play I told you about it premiering next week."

"Oh," was all Cameron said.

"What are you doing next month?"

The two went on to plan her trip. Brenna would go to NYC to see her friend then drive down to Cameron's. They said goodbye and Cameron went to go tell Chase. Walking down the hallway she realized that she hadn't mentioned the she was living with Chase. She didn't think she'd ever even told her sister that she was in a relationship.

"She's coming up on the 20th," she told Chase. "It's really warm in here." She checked the thermostat as she took off her sweatshirt and pulled her hair up. "Robert?" He hadn't said anything since she had walked into the room. She glanced over to the bed to see him laying down facing the window, headphones in his ears connected to her new mP3 player.

Cameron smiled and leaned on the bed. Chase looked over to her, pulling one earphone out. "So?"

Cameron shook her head. "She's coming on the 20th," she repeated. "Good song?"

He showed her the screen. "Hey Mama" by the Black Eyed Peas was playing.

"Ah," she said. Cameron climbed onto the bed and snatched the player from him and unplugged the headphones. She leaned over Chase, practically on top of him, and set it into her main speakers and turned them on. She started the song over, not moving back to the other side of the bed.

"Someone's in a good mood," Chase pointed out, grinning.

Cameron kissed him, her sides, where his hands were resting were feeling warmer by the second.

The song switched for a second time, making Chase wonder if he had even heard any of the last song. He pushed the thought away as he tossed Cameron's shirt to the floor, he had better things to concentrate on.

**TBC**


End file.
